


Caving to the Pressure

by Marvelatsuperwholockedmerlin



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Afghanistan flashbacks, F/F, F/M, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, M/M, PTSD, Teenage Tony, Toni Stark - Freeform, Torture, avengers fic - Freeform, female!Tony, hidden identity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-02-05 17:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 22,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1826002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvelatsuperwholockedmerlin/pseuds/Marvelatsuperwholockedmerlin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is not who he appears to be. Tony is actually Toni, 18 year old female genius. When she is called to the Avengers, will her secret be revealed? Can she get past what happened in those caves in Afghanistan? Will she be able to help Bruce accept himself while she has to deal with "perfect" Steve Rogers? Will she be able to save the world or will she cave to the pressure?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Iron Deception](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/57109) by phantom-lass. 



> I have this up on fanfiction.net as tauntingly haunted, but I haven't updated it in quite a while so i thought I would restart it on both of these sites. Enjoy :)

"You have to be more careful," Pepper admonished.

"I'm fine," Toni scoffed, rolling her eyes. A smirk graced her lips as she draped herself on the couch.

"Seriously, Toni. Imagine what would happen if you got hurt. The media would be all over this," Pepper ranted before her features softened, "Plus, I would hate if anything happened to you. I care too much."

Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark industries, perched herself next to Toni Stark, 18-year-old genius. A brief feeling of guilt washed through Toni at the thought of causing the woman who practically raised her distress.

"I know. I'm sorry. I'll try to be more careful," Toni sat up straight, "But it wasn't my fault. My awesomeness is too much for the bad guys to handle. They just _have_ to come after me."

Toni's arrogance made Pepper shake her head in amusement. Sighing, she stood up and brushed herself off.

Toni's façade slipped as soon as she was alone. She winced when the fabric of her tank top rubbed the wounds on her ribs. Slowly, Toni stumbled down the stairs to her lab. Last she checked, there was a medical kit down there.

An hour later, Toni was hard at work on her next suit. With her ribs firmly wrapped, Toni only occasionally felt the pain. Sweat dripped down her brow, and a stray lock of dark brown hair kept falling in her face. Short hair just isn't conducive to ponytails.

Frustrated, Toni slammed the wrench down. She couldn't focus enough to do such detail oriented work. All she could think about, all she could dream about was Afghanistan. Shuddering, she attempted to push those thoughts from her mind.

"Miss Stark, it's been 32 hours since you last slept," JARVIS spoke up. Toni sighed. She wished she hadn't made her robotic control center so independent.

"Stop being such a mother hen, JARVIS. I can take care of myself." Despite her protests, Toni could feel sleep clawing its way towards her. The tired teenager climbed the stairs through the empty house. With a flop she collapsed on her pristine made duvet and promptly fell asleep.

The next evening, Toni flew back to the illuminated beacon with a grin on her face. The new suit was coming along fine, the tower was up and running, and the arc reactor hadn't been a problem since she created the new element. All in all, the day had been great. Now it was time to celebrate.

Mechanical hands disassembled the suit the minute she landed on the roof. The cool air hit her face as the robots removed her mask. Toni was looking forward to a hot shower, a glass of champagne, and a relaxing, incident free night.

After her shower, Toni changed into comfy flannel pajama pants and an iron maiden t-shirt; she loved the irony. Next on her list is Champagne. Pepper was waiting for her on the top floor, a glass already in her hand. When Toni reached for the bottle, Pepper slapped her hand away.

"You're not old enough," she chastised.

"Oh, come on. It's only one glass, and we're celebrating," Toni pleaded. Bemused, the woman Toni considered an older sister poured her a glass.

"A toast, to the new building," Pepper said, raising her champagne.

"To me getting the recognition I deserve," Toni announced cockily.

"Is it just me or does your body look smaller? Oh, wait, it's probably because your head has gotten so big," Pepper shot back. Before Toni was able to deliver the snarky reply already half-formed in her head, JARVIS cut in.

"Miss Stark, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is calling."

"Tell him to go away," Toni replied moodily. "We're celebrating."

"He's insisting."

"Just ignore him."

"Toni, just answer it" Pepper said, exasperated.

"Miss Stark, my protocols are being overridden."

"Ugh, I'll deal with this myself." Pulling out her high-tech phone, Toni said, "You've reached the phone of Toni Stark. Fortunately, I can't be reached right now. Don't leave a message."

Suddenly, the door slid open to reveal an annoyed Agent Coulsin.

"Hey Phil," Pepper greeted.

"Phil? His first name is Agent," Tony said sullenly.

"Hey, Toni," Phil said with a smile. Everyone knows he has a soft spot for Toni after all that she's been through. He's amazed that she can trust anyone after what happened with Obadiah.

"Go away. We're celebrating," Toni grumbled even though she couldn't help the small smile that slipped across her face.

"We need you to look at this," Phil said holding out a file.

Toni backed away and crossed her arms. "I don't like being handed things."

Pepper sighed. "Here, I'll take it. Hold this." She exchanged the glass of Champagne for the folder. Toni took the folder marked TOP SECRET from Pepper. Then, she flipped it open.

"The Avengers Initiative? I thought they scrapped that." Toni looked up at Phil with a raised eyebrow.

"We did, but some powerful forces have turned up that need extra attention."

"Wasn't I rejected? What was it? I was too unstable, too young, and apparently I don't play well with other," Toni mocked, making air quotes with her fingers.

Phil didn't have an answer for that.

Turning on her heel, Toni flicked through computer files that appeared on the holographic screens. Images of the Hulk rampaging through a city, Captain Steve Rogers throwing his shield, Agent Romanov flipping through the air to take out an enemy, and Hawkeye shooting an enemy down with his bow flicked across her line of sight.

"Toni, you don't have to do this," Pepper said with concern as her hand brushed through her long, ginger hair.

"Yes, Pepper. I do," Toni's face was serious.

She still felt like she had to atone for the weapon manufacturing she did in the past. She had no idea what she was doing. All she knew was that she had to please her father. Despite her brilliance, she was never enough for him. He said he wanted to protect her by keeping her true identity out of the public eye, but she thought otherwise. It was because she was a girl and reminded him too much of her mother. He was so overprotective of her because of how her mother died, yet it seemed that at the same time he couldn't even look his own daughter in the eye.

When she was twelve, Howard Stark had passed on leaving Toni a true orphan who didn't even exist according to the media. All they knew was Anthony "Tony" Stark, sarcastic womanizer currently dating Pepper Potts. This was because Howard didn't want them to know who Toni really was because then they would go after her.

Not that it stopped the terrorists who did capture her.

"Looks like I have some homework to do."


	2. Chapter 2

Toni Stark soared through the air behind the plane. The clear sky revealed the shining pearls forged deep in the belly of the night. Toni was brought back to that fateful night exactly one year, two months, and twelve days ago.

Toni could feel the heat of the day washing over her as sweat beaded on her brow. She could feel her drenched tank top sticking to the slippery seat of the Humvee. Sand suffocated the air and crept into every crevice possible.

Her senses played against her, not allowing her to push away the reminders of the past. Thankfully, Agent Coulson came in on her comm. System interrupting her nightmarish reminiscing.

“Toni, we have a situation. We need you to head over to help Rogers stop Loki.”

Toni had read about the forsaken Asgardian god.  Quite frankly, Loki scared her yet she couldn’t help but be impressed in a evil genius kind of way.

“Fine. I’ll go bail out the Capsicle. Is Legolas gonna be there?” Toni sighed as she changed destinations. It was a good thing that she had fixed the arc reactor, or she wouldn’t be able to make it across the ocean.

“No, he’s not,” Coulson muttered. That interested Toni, but she didn’t push the issue. It really seemed to bother Phil.

Soon, Loki’s figure came into view. With her signature Stark snark, Toni hacked into the plane’s mainframe and played an iron maiden song over the loudspeaker. The irony never ceased to amuse her.

“The guest of honor has arrived,” Toni announced sarcastically, the suit distorting her voice to sound like the famous imposter Tony Stark.

Just as Loki raised his scepter at the elderly man standing against him, Captain Rogers crouched in front of him with his shield. The brilliant blue energy that shot towards him bounced harmlessly off of the vibranium. The breath whooshed out of Toni as the man went unharmed.

Deciding now was the perfect time to jump in, Toni raised her arms to chest level and let the power fly.

Her blasters whirred to action as a flash of energy arced towards the surprisingly attractive villain. Shaking off her thoughts, Toni watched in satisfaction as Loki tumbled onto his back. Unfortunately, he stood up a split second later. Irritated, the young superhero blasted off another couple rounds which Loki neatly dodged.

 

Distantly, Toni was aware of the people around her. Almost as a unit, the mob of people frantically ran away from the vicinity of the otherworldly being. One particularly hysterical man, pushed past Toni which caused her to lose her footing.

 “Oh _shit_.”

Toni dove to the side, making the discharge of energy from the adopted god’s scepter that was about to hit her straight in the chest only skim her arm. Pain shot through the appendage as her suit crumpled under the force. Before she had a chance to recover, a gold and leather clad fist was streaking towards her face. Managing to twist out of the way in the nick of time, the fist only met air.

Toni’s relief was short lived. Cement met metal, and it became hard for Toni to take in air. Her suit crushed against her ribs and blood dripped into her eye. Shakily, the infamous iron man made her way to her feet.

Captain America _finally_ came to the conclusion that now was the exact perfect moment to step in, as opposed to when Toni was getting her ass kicked by a Norse god. Rogers launched his shield at Loki, but the villain evaded the projectile with a cruel laugh.

Raising his arms, Loki taunted, “Is that all you mundane, puny humans have? Give me a true challenge!”

Just as these words parted from his lips, Toni could see Roger’s vibranium shield boomerang back to the fight. A laugh escaped from the young genius’ mouth when the shield painted in true patriotic likeness collided with the back of Loki’s head.

Rogers pounced on the fallen scoundrel before he had the chance to collect himself. The formidable Captain America knocked the scepter out of Loki’s grasp.

Time froze as each superlative being watched the powerful staff skitter across the pavement. Slowly, Toni, Loki, and Rogers each glanced from the staff to each other and then back again. A long minute passed with next to no movement. Even the air was thick and unmoving as if it could sense the strain of the moment and acted accordingly. The tension was so heavy it could have been cut with a butter knife.

Suddenly, everyone jumped into action. Rogers went for Loki, Loki dove for his scepter, and Toni shot into the air just above the wrestling duo. Swooping down, Toni snapped up the object that held the power to rule the earth and everyone on it. Reveling in the power she grasped in her iron clad hands was pushed to the deep recesses of her mind when she saw Rogers holding a powerless Loki.

Shield’s plane flew down close enough to the three oddly dressed figures for them to board. The god of mischief was soon detained with a pair of specially made handcuffs, and the plane was soaring high through the air.

On board, Agent Romanov sat in the pilot’s seat in her skintight black leather and manned the flying vessel while Fury occupied the seat next to her. Loki was forced into a seat near the middle of the aircraft, and Rogers stood directly across staring him down.

Toni stood behind Natasha and tried not to move too much. Her suit was crushing her arm and ribs, but she couldn’t remove the suit now. If she did, everyone would know the lie her father told the world. Everyone would know who she really is. Everyone would look at her differently. Everyone would treat her differently, and she can’t have that. It was hard enough with her father; she didn’t need it from anyone else.

“Stark,” Rogers acknowledged tersely.

“Captain,” Toni nodded back, her voice coming out gruffer than her normal one. “Pretty spritely for an older fellow. What’s your secret? Pilates?”

“What?” Rogers asked very confusedly.

“You might have missed a couple things doing time as a capsicle.” Despite her joking manner, an undercurrent of disdain was detectable in Toni’s voice.

The Captain’s face hardened. “No one told me they were bringing you in,” he said equally as scornful.

Toni leaned in closer. It was too bad that Rogers couldn’t see her glare because of the suit. “There’s a lot they don’t tell you.”

The standoff was broken by Agent Romanov’s voice, “Where is this storm coming from?”

The sky had transformed into a malevolent black, and clouds roiled in a mass of pandemonium. Lightning flashed in the distance, and thunder’s booming voice echoed throughout the night sky.

Loki’s face belied his nervousness as he glanced through the window.

“What? Scared of some lightning?” Rogers snapped at the god.

Instead of becoming defenseless, Loki only said, “I’m not overly fond of what follows.”

Toni’s brow furrowed. What could he mean by that?

Suddenly, the plane shook with the impact of a heavy object on the roof. Toni quickly grabbed onto a nearby pole to stop herself from falling on her butt. Next to her, Rogers grabbed his shield in preparation for what was to come.

Meanwhile, Toni pressed the button that opened the back hatch of the plane.

“What are you doing?” Rogers asked over the wind now rushing through the cabin of the high tech plane.

A lone figure stood on the end of the opening. His attire was much the same of that of Loki’s except a red cape donned his shoulders, and instead of horns on his head, golden locks of hair flowed down to his shoulders.

One might say because of this that he was feminine; however, Toni would highly disagree. He was anything but girly. His masculine features would leave even the toughest girl swooning. Fortunately, Toni was no ordinary girl. She disregarded his godly features and focuses on the fact that the hammer in his hands was coming for her face.

Unfortunately for her, it changed directions at the last minute and hit her full on the chest. Toni was rocketed backwards to skid across the metal floor of the plane.

The mysterious man grabbed Loki by his neck and forced him out of his seat. Before anyone had a chance to react, they were jumping out of the plane.

“Thanks for jumping in there, Captain,” Toni spat out sarcastically. “You were a huge help.”

Rogers ignored him and directed his question at Agent Romanov, “Now who’s that guy?”

“Another Asgardian, maybe?”

“Think he’s a friendly,” Rogers asked.

Toni turned to face the man wrapped in a skintight American flag. “Doesn’t matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the tessaract is lost.” Iron man turned on her heel to face the gaping exit.

“Wait, we need a plan of attack,” Rogers shouted at her.

Toni only stopped for a second, not turning around. “I have a plan: Attack.” The next second, she was launching from the plane into the air with only one thing on her mind: find Loki.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Trees whizzed past her line of vision, and stars streaked above her on the black canvas of the night.  If it was any other time, Toni would have loved to relax in this countryside. She had always dreamed of traveling the world. In the past, she was locked away in her lab manufacturing weapons for her father and was guarded by her fake identity. Now, she had the capability to explore but unfortunately had more pressing matters to attend to.

It was irony in its purest form.

At the moment, Toni Stark had to focus on the mischievous black-haired villain and the blond hunk of a man. It was troublesome trying to keep her attention away from their obvious masculine beauty, but she would never indulge her fantasies past her imagination. The idea was simply abominable.

The thing was, Toni had never truly been with a man. She had experience of sorts, but not the kind she wished to have.

Suddenly, sounds of yelling and fighting below in the forest derailed her train of thought. Glad for the distraction, Toni evaluated the situation that played out in front of her.

The new Asgardian towered over an inert Loki sprawled on the rocky ground. Toni couldn’t help but notice how close they were to the edge of a cliff. It was too bad that they needed Loki for the Tesseract, or Toni would have just accidently given them a helpful little push to end all of their problems. Unfortunately, that probably wouldn’t go over too well with Fury.

“Where is the Tesseract?” the blond one demanded of the somehow still grinning Loki.

Loki let out a chuckle that held little mirth, “I’ve missed you, too, brother.”

Well, that explained some of the events, but Toni wondered about their shared history. The two god-like figures were total opposites appearance wise. The young genius decided it was probably best to give the two brothers time to hash things out before she jumped in and saved the day – like usual. Maybe this way some of her questions would be unknowingly answered by them.

The scowl on the mystery man’s face only deepened as he gazed at his sardonic brother. “I’m in no gaming mood,” his voice boomed across the shadowed land.

Slowly, Loki rose from his where he lied. “You should thank me. With the bifrost gone –“ Loki’s words were cut off by the approach of one Captain America.

 _Damn him,_ Toni thought. She was just starting to get information out of the villain. Rogers always had to ruin everything for her.

The star-spangled hero landed with a thump on the ground as the parachute floated down to cover the grounds behind him. Rogers launched himself at the two otherworldly beings. Unfortunately for him, the immense mass of muscled god caught on to his extremely well thought out and strategic plan that put all other courses of action to shame.

Loki’s brother turned on the Captain with a furious glare. Rogers didn’t back down from the intimidating man. Instead, he met his glare with a glower of his own. The stare contest only lasted a couple of seconds, yet it seemed to drag on forever.

The tension was shattered when Loki’s brother lifted his enormous hammer. The weapon whistled through the air before hitting the Captain full force in the chest. Luckily for Rogers, a comfy tree broke his fall.

Sighing in annoyance, Toni went to his rescue. Without her, this whole operation would have already been lost to the schemes of a conniving god. It was a good thing she was around to save the day.

Toni decided to forego her usual snarky entrance. These two were being annoying and didn’t deserve her awesomeness. Toni frustratedly grabbed the blond headed idiot by the neck and propelled him in the air. The curious looking pair was silhouetted against the glowing moon in the sky. In spite of the outwardly peaceful image they created, Toni was struggling to keep hold of her quarry. He was wriggling and attempting to free himself from the steely hold of Iron Man. Luckily for her, the suit’s strength was holding firm.

Toni knew that it wouldn’t be long before her grip on his neck failed. Toni launched the brawny man towards the ground; he looked like he could fend for himself. She followed his descent closely to see that he skidded across the ground and left a man-sized indent in the earth.

Toni landed smoothly in front of him; the slight wince from her wounds was the only thing that belied her invincible façade.

Slowly, the fallen god stood from the dirt. “Do not touch me again,” he growled at Toni.

“Then don’t take my stuff,” he said evenly with a hint of challenge in his tone.

“You have no idea what you are dealing with.”

Toni smirked. This guy had no idea what _he_ was dealing with. “Uh, Shakespeare in the park? Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?” Toni mocked, satisfied with herself.

“This does not concern you, metal man.” It never ceased to amuse her how no one ever thought to themselves that someone of her intelligence and skills could be a woman. They all just assumed her male. “Loki will face Asgardian justice.”

“You give us the cube, and he’s all yours. Till then, stay out of the way.” The blond man looked as if he was actually contemplating Toni’s half-proposal-half-threat.

That is, until Toni muttered, “Tourist.”

The next thing she knew, Loki’s brother hurled the hammer into his chest. Toni flew back into the pile of brush behind her. Inside her suit, the screen was flashing because of the damage.

“Well, if that’s how it’s gonna be,” Toni grumbled to herself. She turned over so her hands were on the ground as if she had trouble standing up. Meanwhile, the exorbitantly muscled blond had a smug look on his face as the hammer returned to his hand.

Without warning, Toni turned while simultaneously blasting at him. She didn’t give him time to recover before shooting through the air to kick him in the chest.

The Asgardian only went down for a second, but his hammer was knocked out of his grasp.   However, he only had to hold out his arm to get the hammer back in his grip. He lifted the silver weapon to the sky, and a blinding bolt of lightning met it. The bolt lasted a couple of seconds before he pulled it away. The next instance, the hammer was pointed at her once again except this time it was going to hurt a lot more.

The lightning was directed towards the awed Iron Man. It hit him in the chest, causing electrical malfunctions in the suit. Toni raised her hand to block the energy, but it just kept coming. Sparks shot out across the armor. Pieces of the metal were bending under the pressure. Sharp ends of metal bit into her skin, drawing blood.

After an interminable amount of time, the lighting finally stopped. Toni’s suit went dark for a second before she heard JARVIS’s voice.

“Suit at 400 percent capacity.”

Toni chuckled in amusement. “How about that?”

Then, she let it rip. A gigantic stream of electrical energy battered into the Asgardian’s chest which propelled him backwards about 50 feet.

Toni flew to a stop in front of him. The blonde threw a punch at her jaw, but she managed to dodge it seconds before it did irreparable damage to her face.

Toni retaliated with a punch of her own, but he grabbed her wrist, effectively stopping her. Toni tried the other arm only to have that one caught in his grasp.

They stared at each other, clearly at a standstill. Toni wanted to recoil from his crushing hold, but he was entirely too strong. She was starting to panic because the suit started beeping indicating its rapid failure. In a last minute effort, Toni unclenched her hand and blasted her thrusters at him.

The muscular blonde’s grip faltered long enough for her to rip her arms away and head butt him. Sadly for her, he reacted with a head butt of his own, and his were much more powerful. Toni flipped backwards, landing in a crouch.

Her thrusters fired her straight into the Asgardian who then landed in a tree. They were both about to go at each other for round two when a shield bounced off of the both of them.

“Hey! That’s enough,” Rogers said from the cliff above them. He jumped down to where they stood panting.

“I don’t know what you’re planning on doing here,” Rogers said in a low, even voice.

The blond cut in with his booming voice, “I am here to put an end to Loki’s schemes.”

Rogers didn’t miss a beat when he replied, “Then prove it. Put that hammer down.”

Toni inwardly sighed at the captain’s stupidity. “Uh, yeah, No! Bad call. He loves his ham-“ Toni was cut off by a hammer knocking him backward.

“You want me to put the hammer down?” the crazy eyed man bellowed. Time seemed to move in slow motion as Toni watched from the ground where she lay.

The Asgardian held his beloved hammer aloft as he jumped the distance between Rogers and him. At the same time, the captain raised his vibranium shield to protect himself from the oncoming danger.

A brilliant blue light erupted outwardly like the detonation of a bomb. All three of them were blown backwards from the force of the explosion that occurred when the hammer met the shield.

Toni grunted in pain as she pulled herself from the debris. Next to her, Captain America and the Asgardian did the same. The silence was only broken by the panting of each of their breaths.

Finally, Rogers spoke. “Are we done here?” The blond man in the red cape surveyed the damage. Trees were toppled over, roots were upturned, and branched were scattered across the roiled dirt.

The unnaturally strong man decided that they should probably retrieve Loki so that the scrawny humans could reclaim the Tesseract.

Half an hour later, Loki was being led down the halls of shield’s brand new helicraft headquarters surrounded by a dozen armed guards. He passed the lab on the way and grinned maliciously at its occupant. Inside, a man wearing a purple button down with scruffy brown hair took off his glasses to press his fingers to his temples and ward off the incoming headache.

It wasn’t long before the godly villain was placed in his cell. It was wide enough on both sides for him to pace a couple steps either way, and it was tall enough for him to stand up straight in. The ceiling and floor were pure white while the walls were made out of a specially made reinforced glass. As if that wasn’t enough, it was suspended over the hull of the aircraft. There would be no escaping this prison.

The armed guards left only for Fury to take their place.  Fury strolled to the control panel that was located near the high-tech cell, his trench coat billowing out behind him.

“In case you don’t understand, there will be no escaping. You so much as scratch that glass.” Fury pressed a few buttons, and the floor of the aircraft opened. Wind swirled through the gaping hole that perfectly matched the size of the cell. Fury had to yell to be heard over the noise. “It’s 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. Understand?”

Fury pressed a button and the hole closed back on itself.

“Ant. Boot,” he said, gesturing first from Loki and then to the control panel.

Loki only laughed. “It is certainly an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me.” If Fury’s display of power had made Loki nervous, no sign of it showed on his face; he was all arrogance.

Fury leveled his one-eyed gaze at him. “No. It’s for something far stronger.”

Loki turned to face the security camera stationed just outside his prison. “So I have heard. It is for a mindless beast makes playing of a man.” He turned to face Fury. “How desperate are you that you call on lost creatures to defend you.”

In the meeting room of the craft sat four of the Avengers. Thor, the newest Avenger and the Asgardian that had come to take Loki away, leaned against the table. Natasha Romanov sat in front of the screen that displayed Loki in his cell. Captain America sat in one of the rotating chairs, listening to Loki taunt Fury.

Lastly, Bruce Banner stood near the back with his glasses in his hands. He was the one Loki was talking about; he was the mindless beast. Despite Loki’s words, he would be the last of the four suspected of mindlessness. His appearance reflected his intelligent and calm nature.

Fury let his anger seep into his voice. “How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can’t control, you talk about peace, and you kill ‘cause it’s fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.”

Loki leaned closer to the glass that separated Fury and him. His eyes revealed his malice, and his nostrils flared slightly. “It burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have the power – unlimited power, and for what? A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is.”

Fury would not be rattled. “Well, let me know if real power wants a magazine or something,” he threw over his shoulder on his way out.


	4. Chapter 4

The only thing Toni Stark saw was the cloudy blue of the sky as she soared through the air. Toni was looking for SHIELD headquarters which was supposedly in floating around somewhere up here.  

“Miss, I am detecting a significant heat signature 67 degrees to your right,” JARVIS piped up.

Inside her suit, Toni’s screen zoomed in on the area. Now that she was looking closer, Toni could detect the presence of an unverified helicarrier with deflectors to fool the eye into thinking it wasn’t there.

It was an interesting piece of technology yet surprisingly simple. It consisted of an interconnected web of cameras that fed the image of the sky above the aircraft onto the belly of the plane that the world would see if not for the cameras. Toni knew she could easily make a more sophisticated system with a paperclip and some tinfoil.

She would have to work on that as soon as possible. She looked forward to the challenge; new projects always took her mind off things. If it wasn’t for the iron man suit, Toni would have gone insane when she got back from the caves.

Toni shuddered at the memory of what happened to her in that god forsaken place. She could never escape the nightmares; the terrorists had etched them into her skin with a knife. It was a good thing no one actually saw the real her or else they would know the truth. They only saw the automated robot that was the legendary Tony Stark.

The creation of Tony Stark was Howard’s crowning glory. Tony was created a couple of years before the real Toni was actually born. Toni presumed it was to keep up the image of a perfect, happy family. Howard crafted a robot that could be controlled from hundreds of miles away or actually have someone inside of it. A synthetic skin encased the inner-workings of the machine that felt real to all that touched it. It was even modified to appear as if it aged like an actual person.

Howard never let Toni control the mechanical man. She was locked away in the lab naively doing everything her father told her to do. Howard kept Toni under his thumb for many years, and it wasn’t until he passed on that Toni took over Tony Stark’s public image.

Toni’s sarcastic attitude seeped into the now adult looking robot which gave him the reputation of a careless millionaire playboy. Toni didn’t mind this new evolvement because it allowed her to focus on her weapons manufacturing. Even though her father was gone, Toni still followed his every word and belief.

It wasn’t until two years ago that she realized the truth of her actions.

Trying to put what happened in the past has proved exceedingly difficult for the young billionaire. Joining the Avengers will hopefully help with that.

Soon, Toni lowered herself onto the surface of the helicarrier. Despite her best efforts for a smooth landing, the impact jarred her wounds where the suit had collapsed in on itself. Toni was looking forward to when she could finally take it off.

No one came out to greet Toni which peeved her a little bit. Didn’t they know she was coming? At the same time, this meant that Toni could find a place to transform into her alter ego.

She didn’t want them knowing her secret. This had to stay strictly between her, Pepper, and Phil. Agent Romanov had come close enough to knowing last year when she posed as her assistant than Toni was comfortable with.

Still in her suit, Toni walked down stark white hallways. Fluorescent lighting blinded the few passerbies’. This area of the craft was nearly deserted which made the clang of Toni’s footsteps against the metal floor deafening.

“JARVIS, call Phil.”

“Your wish is my command, Miss Stark,” JARVIS replied dryly.

Toni’s lip curled up in amusement. “JARVIS, do I need to put you in time out again?”

If JARVIS could roll his eyes, Toni knew he would’ve at that moment. “Calling Agent Coulson, Miss.”

The phone rang twice before Phil’s surprised face showed up on the screen.

“Toni, what do you need? Shouldn’t you be off somewhere discovering time travel or something?”

“Did you not read the schedule I faxed over? That’s tomorrow. It just so happens that today as in right now, I’m standing in the middle of SHIELD headquarters looking for a place to ditch the armor. I can strip down right here if necessary, but I thought you would appreciate my need for privacy.”

Phil cocked an eyebrow, not at all impressed. “I thought you would love the attention.”

Toni immediately grew sober, and her eyes swirled with inner turmoil hardened by the past. Her voice was steely when she replied, “Not that kind of attention.”

Phil looked awkward for a second before changing the subject. “I’ll get you a room set up. Just give me a second.”

Toni nodded, still troubled by where her thoughts had taken her. Contrary to what most people believed, Toni avoided notice as much as possible. Her alter ego let her avoid the public eye, and in front of the few people that Toni did know, she put on a convincing front.

Minutes later, Phil turned his attention back to Toni. “A room is set up for you. It’s on the D wing. Room 4. To get in it’s 92347.”

“92347. Got it. Thanks Phil,” Toni said before ending the call.

Toni found her room with little trouble. Holographic keypad beeped as she entered the security code. Then, the door swished open to reveal another blindingly white room. The only difference was the lumpy looking cot and adjoining bathroom.

Toni sighed in relief when her mask slid up to expose her face to the fresh air. Parts of the suit slid off into the nearby case. It was an arduous process because parts of the suit had been crushed under Thor and Loki’s onslaught. When it was finally all off, Toni slumped onto the hard pillow. Her white tank top was spotted with blood, and a red puddle had formed where her feet still touched the ground.

With a groan, Toni pushed herself to her feet from her sitting position. She rooted around for a first aid kit. Eventually, she found one under the sink in the bathroom. It was a good thing she found it because her ribs were really starting to bother her.

With extreme effort, Toni peeled herself out of her blood soaked garments. Then, she pulled out tape to wrap it around her torso. When the bandage seemed stable enough to support her bruised ribs, Toni used her teeth to cut the end of the tape. Now that that was done, she moved on to the multitude of other cuts and bruises that littered her body.

One particularly nasty gash blossomed on her forearm where Thor had grabbed her wrist. The metal of the broken suit had rubbed off the top few layers of skin which left a vulnerable, oozing sore.

A bottle of antiseptic, three boxes of band aids, and two rolls of medical tape later, Toni deemed herself fit for action.

With a sigh, Toni heaved her aching body onto the bed. The only thing on her mind right now was how good sleep would feel. Her limbs dropped against the sheets like concrete blocks. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she could feel the thrall of sleep dragging her in.

KNOCK KNOCK.

Toni was jolted out of her half sleep by the pounding on her door. For a moment, Toni was confused as to what was happening. Who was knocking on her door? No one else knew she was here yet. Then again, they did have cameras all over the place presuming that it was a half decent system.

Toni was about to ask who it was when she realized that she sounded like herself. She didn’t know whether it was Phil or not and couldn’t risk her secret.

Panicking, Toni attempted to make her voice sound lower. “Umm, uh, hold on.”

She scrambled around for the Tony-bot. It was secured in another black case with an electrical lock that could only be opened by her command. Toni pulled out the mechanics that created her public image.

In mere seconds, the suit snapped onto her body. Then, the head locked into place effectively disguising her identity.  Toni quickly glanced in the mirror above the sink. What greeted her was the sight of a middle-aged man with short dark hair and a goatee/mustache combination.

“Stark, are you in there?” A voice said from outside.

Satisfied with her quick change, Toni took a deep breath to prepare her façade before she pulled the door open.

On the other side, Agent Maria Hill stood impatiently. Agent Hill was dressed similarly to Agent Romanov in her skintight black cat suit.  Her hair resembled Toni’s in color but longer and with bangs.

“You called,” Tony said with a gratuitous smirk.

“You need to go talk to the others. They don’t know that you’re here yet.” Agent Hill crossed her arms over her chest. She really wasn’t one to put up with any nonsense.

“Have you ever been to Maui? I heard it’s great this time of year,” Toni said just to annoy her.

“Stark, just get down to the meeting room.” Now Agent Hill was exasperated.

Toni talked over the end of Hill’s sentence. “You should take a vacation there sometime. I bet you would look great in a bikini.”

It was the wink that really put Agent Hill over the edge. Her usual calm manner was fraying at the edges under Toni’s act at being a womanizer. A slew of curses flew out of Hill’s mouth, most likely aimed at Toni. Then, she turned sharply on her heel and paced away. Chuckling at her predictable reaction, Toni followed soon after.

Toni could feel her wounds rubbing against the inner workings of the machine. It was a good thing that the Tony-bot’s facial expressions were under control because if it actually mirrored Toni’s expression, it would be screwed up in pain.

The twisting hallways led back to the central meeting room where the Avengers gathered. Through the glass, Toni could see them sitting in awkward silence. Occasionally, Rogers tried to make small talk but was shut down by the silence of the others.  

Despite the weariness that had set into her bones, Tony squared her shoulders and steeled herself for the first true introduction to her fellow superheroes.

Unfortunately for her, Toni knew that it was going to be a long day.


	5. Chapter 5

Just before Toni entered the room, she noticed that Agent Hill had stalked off to attend to God-knows-what. For a minute, Toni wished she would come back. It wasn’t that she was insecure or anything; the great Iron Man always just looked more impressive with an entourage of normal people to flank her.

With a shake of her head, Toni neatly took those thoughts, folded them into small stacks, and locked them away in a steel case in the back of her mind.

Toni blew through both double doors with her usual bravado, and all eyes turned to her. Rogers’ stare was judgmental, Thor’s was one of joyful exuberance, Agent Romanov was sizing Toni up, and Bruce Banner’s gaze was filled with guarded curiosity. Toni met each of their stares with one of her own to show them that she wasn’t backing down.

Toni wondered what they saw as they looked at her. It was weird to think that they saw a middle aged man with _magnificent_ facial hair when they looked at her. Did they notice the Black Sabbath t-shirt first, or did their eyes go straight to the glowing arc reactor? Did they see the immature billionaire or the fake smile plastered on her equally fake face?

Rogers broke the tense silence by offering his hand to Toni. “Stark, thanks for the help out there.” Reluctantly, Toni shook the star-spangled hand attached to the tall blond.

“Saving people’s asses is my specialty,” she boasted with an arrogant wink.

Captain America’s face hardened at Toni’s cocky words. He was only trying to be polite to the son of a man he was once friends with.

Toni pretended she didn’t see the growing disdain in the stoic blonde’s eyes. The barbed sarcastic comments kept her fragile emotional shell in place and created a wall of aggravation between herself and those around her.

The air grew thick with the pressure building up between the two heroes. Natasha Romanov wasn’t about to jump into the pool of testosterone that was nearly palpable. Past experience has taught her that these were the type of situations that revealed the most about a person.

Thor, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to the disgust between Stark and Rogers.

He bounded over to the significantly shorter man and exclaimed, “Man of Iron! Despite these dark times, I am honored to battle beside you.”

Thor clapped Toni’s shoulder with a strength that would have caused her to stumble if not for her reinforced disguise. A jubilant smile graced the god’s handsome features, and Toni had to force her attention back to forming a sassy response.

“More like battle against me,” Toni muttered under her breath before raising her voice. “So Thunderhead, is there a safety on that, or is it just a fly by night kind of thing?”

Thor’s face creased in confusion before following Toni’s gaze to the hammer gripped loosely in his hand.

“I do not know of what this ‘safety’ is you talk of, but I do travel under the guise of the night on occasion.”

Toni shook her head with a light chuckle. This guy’s cluelessness was definitely going to keep her entertained in the coming weeks.

Generally, Toni was decent at reading people. She could get an idea of what type of person they are based on a conversation, but there was one person in the room that was puzzling her.

The infamous Bruce Banner was quietly stationed in the back corner of the room. His dark hair blended in with the harsh shadows cast across his face from the fluorescent lighting. Toni noted that for a nerdy scientist, he was actually somewhat built. Don’t get her wrong; Dr. Banner was nowhere near the size of the god or the Captain.

Beneath his reticent countenance, Toni detected a stormy fury burning low in his being. It intrigued the young billionaire as to what he was hiding underneath his professor-like looks.

“It’s good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparallel, and I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

Bruce’s head tilted in an inquisitive manner as he regarded the curious man before him. No one had ever been so blunt; everyone walked on eggshells around him.

“Thanks,” he said shaking the proffered hand.                        

At that moment, Nick Fury blew through the doors in his shin-length trench coat and matching eye patch. Immediately, Natasha and Rogers straightened their spines appearing just as much the trained little soldiers they are. Toni only rolled her eyes at their little displays of respect.

“Dr. Banner is only here to locate the cube,” Fury announced while glaring at Toni.

Toni arched an eyebrow at the spy in front of her. She didn’t necessarily believe that, but she let it go for the time being. Now was not the time to be questioning her superiors at every turn.

Actually, it always was the time to question her superiors. Who else was going to keep them on the straight and narrow?

“So what exactly are we dealing with here?” Toni asked mostly of Thor. “What’s with reindeer games down there?”

At the mention of his brother, the lines of Thor’s face etched with concern.  “He has an army, called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.”

The Avenger’s looked dumbfounded by this new information. Their mind’s raced to comprehend the enormity of what was going to happen to their home planet.

Rogers was the first to speak. “An army from outer space.”               

“So he’s building another portal. That’s what he needs Erik Selvig for, “ Bruce said as he made the connection.

“Selvig?” Thor asked with a look of great surprise.

“He’s an astrophysicist,” Banner explained.

Thor looked downtrodden at the news. “He’s a friend.”

Natasha piped up from the other side of the glass encased room, “Loki has them under some kind of spell along with one of ours.” Clint’s harsh features flashed through her mind for a half of a second before she forcefully pushed the thought out.

Rogers had other matters on his mind. “I wanna know why Loki let us take him so easily. He’s not leading an army from here.”

In her head, Toni agreed, but she wasn’t about to say that out loud. God knows what would happen if people saw her start agreeing with stars and stripes over there.

Bruce’s mouth turned down in a half frown while his mind flew through different possibilities as to the god of mischief’s sudden surrender.

A minute later, he spoke, “I don’t think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell the crazy on him.”

Thor abruptly exploded form his chair. His normally goofy expression was gone, and in its stead, a protective rage emerged.

“Have a care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother!”

“He killed eighty people in two days,” Natasha deadpanned.

Thor grimaced at the reminder of his brother’s troubled ways.

“He’s adopted,” he said as way of explanation.

“So what are we going to do?” Rogers asked.

Fury turned to the two scientists standing side by side.

“You two,” he demanded pointing at them. “Get to work on finding the cube. This is top priority.”

Toni knocked her feet together and mock saluted. “Sir, yes, sir!”

Natasha rolled her eyes at Stark’s antics, and Steve glared at the side of Toni’s head. Toni could feel his stare, and the side of her mouth quirked up in a smirk.

The young prodigy was ecstatic to be working with Dr. Banner. She had been following his research for quite some time and had come to look up to him despite never meeting him before now.

“Shall we get on with it, Dr. Banner?” Toni asked with a gallant sweep of her hands towards the doors.

Bruce shook his head in amusement as he made his way to the lab next door.

Toni was having difficulty walking. Her ribs were really giving her trouble, and her oozing wrist kept rubbing against the inner workings of the Tony-bot. She figured her ribs may be more than bruised, and she only hoped that they hadn’t punctured a lung or something equally as terrible. That would mean she needed a doctor, and that just wouldn’t do for her situation.

The truth was Toni had never been to a doctor.

Howard Stark wanted to keep her out of the limelight and bringing her to a doctor’s office would raise questions that he didn’t want to answer. Questions like when did Stark have a daughter. Why didn’t anyone know?

Even after what happened in Afghanistan, Toni had been to a private doctor sworn to silence. Toni didn’t know what he said, but Phil must have threatened him with something really bad because the doctor never breathed a word to anyone. He didn’t even say anything about the condition she came in.

And she was in a bad condition. Actually, she was so far past bad that there wasn’t even a word for it.

Her body was mutilated.

Bloody gashes striped across her skin. Burns raised star-shaped pinkish scars across her back. The crack of a whip was forever engraved in her brain.

And those weren’t even the worst. She would always have the crowds of disfigurements etched into her skin, but the mental wounds were far worse. Toni awoke from nightmares every single time she attempted to sleep despite her three months in Afghanistan being a couple years ago.

She only got three hours of sleep on a regular basis. Most nights, she just stayed in her lab downstairs working on her suits.

Toni could still hear them breathing against her neck. She could smell the putrid stench of stale sweat and fresh blood. Iron was a constant taste from her own blood that spurted out as they beat her within an inch of her life.

“Little bitch,” they growled in her ear. “You know you want it.’

Her pleading cries resonated in the dank cavern.

During the regular torture, she never begged. She screamed, she sobbed, and she yelled, but she never once begged them.

She had definitely begged later.

She begged them as they covered her blood soaked mouth with their rancid, grimy hands.

She begged them as naked flesh was revealed to the Afghanistan air.

She begged them as said hands ran over her body.

Then, she couldn’t beg anymore because of the hair-raising scream that erupted from her throat because of the all consuming pain that engulfed her lower regions.

She struggled against her scratchy rope bonds. Her already torn nails were worn down to the bits trying to undo the knots that held her wrists together behind her.

Unfortunately, her struggles yielded no results.

“Are you coming?” Bruce asked, pulling her out of her gloomy reverie.

Toni mentally chided herself to keep it together. She was fine. She was always fine.

The lab next door was state of the art, but Toni wasn’t impressed. Hers at Stark towers far exceeded the meager workings of S.H.I.E.L.D.S laboratory. For one thing, Toni had robots, and robots were always better.

On the other hand, this lab contained Loki’s staff, and that might just trump robots.

Toni pulled out a hard briefcase and set it on the table. With the touch of a few buttons, the case opened to reveal a high tech computer. A holographic screen popped into the air with a swoosh of Toni’s hand. Next to her, Bruce Banner looked on with raised eyebrows.

“And all I brought was a change of clothes,” Bruce remarked dryly.

“I’m just a regular old boy scout. I have a badge and everything,” Toni joked back.

“For some reason, I can see only see you getting kicked out of boy scouts,” Bruce shot at her.

This remark actually made Toni let out a loud laugh because it most likely would have been true if she was allowed to do those kinds of things as a kid.

“We should really start working on this now,” Toni managed to say through her laughter.

Bruce let his smile drop as he turned back to his research. “So I’ve set up a tracking signal for gamma signals over the normal level. It hasn’t turned up much yet, but I only just started it.”

“Sounds like a good place to start. We should probably get to work figuring out this staff stuff. It seems to be important.”

Toni turned to look at Loki’s weapon, but she must have turned too quickly because the room swam in her vision. Luckily, she managed to steady herself on the nearby table before she fell over. Bruce was too engrossed in studying the staff to notice her dizziness.

“It seems to have energy similar to the Tesseract, but I don’t really know where to start.”

Bruce stared at the weapon in confusion. Normally, Toni would have been thrilled to be able to experiment with something so exotic, but right now she was a little preoccupied with her woozy state of being.

Toni took a step forward, but before her foot even hit the floor, she knew it was a bad idea. She didn’t have the table to catch herself with this time, and the world around her tilted. Her legs buckled, and the floor grew nearer.

She felt the impact in her wounded ribs as they hit against the rigid ground below her. Without thinking, Toni put out her hands to catch her fall. That was a stupid move on her part. Her wrist buckled under her weight which most likely injured it even more than it already was.

“Oh, shit,” Toni groaned in pain.

Bruce whirled around at the sudden racket behind him. He was astonished to see Toni Stark sprawled on the ground.

“Whoa, are you okay Tony? What happened,” Bruce asked looking slightly frazzled which was unusual for him.

“Calm down, big boy. I’m fine. Just help me up,” Toni groaned grapping for Bruce’s arm.

With Bruce’s help, she stumbled to her feet. Toni had to lean heavily on Bruce to make it over to the black chair that stood next to the lab desk. A low groan escaped her lips when she lowered herself into the plush seat.

“What happened, Toni?” Bruce asked.

Toni waved off his concern. “I just got a little dizzy. It’s nothing serious.”

Despite her flippant attitude, Toni had to clench her jaw against the throbbing pain that emanated from her entire body.

“You sure? Because you don’t look too great.”

Suddenly, Toni gasped at an unexpected surge of pain. “Yup, I’m just peachy. Ready to go fight some monsters. Tip top shape.”

Toni would have been more convincing if she wasn’t bent over clutching her ribs.

“Is it your ribs? Let me take a look,” Bruce asked. The doctor made towards Toni, but she immediately shied away.

“I’m fine. I’m fine.” Toni assured him.

“You obviously aren’t. Just let me help.” Bruce grasped her fake shoulder surprisingly tight.

 Against her will, Bruce reached down to her wrist to check her pulse. Unfortunately, Toni didn’t move fast enough to stop him. She knew what he would find or more likely wouldn’t find.

The one flaw with the Tony-bot suit was that she never could figure out how to create a plausible pulse. It wasn’t necessarily the pulse part that was the problem. She could do that easily enough, but to a trained ear it would sound too mechanical. Also, checking her pulse would lead to veins and other things that she couldn’t manufacture. She just had to make sure she didn’t get any medical attention while in the Tony-bot.

Bruce looked up in confusion at Toni. “Tony, why don’t you have a pulse?”

Toni sighed. There was no hiding it now. She had to tell him, or he would do god know’s what.

“What is going on here, Tony,” Bruce demanded to know.

Toni could see that he was getting riled up, and she knew that if she let it get worse, it would end in disaster.

With great uncertainty, Toni lowered her mask to reveal herself to the doctor that sat across from her.


	6. Chapter 6

Bruce stared dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing

The famous playboy billionaire Tony Stark was . . . not Tony Stark?

If Tony Stark wasn’t Tony Stark, then who was he . . . . or she?

In a manner of seconds, these thoughts poured through the bewildered Doctor Banner’s frazzled mind. He had no idea what was happening, and to make things worse, he could feel his pulse rising to a dangerous level.

A pale Toni spoke up from her slumped position on the chair. “Whoa, big guy. Calm down. It’s okay. I’m still Toni Stark just without all the . . . extra parts.”

Bruce attempted to regulate his harsh breathing, but it proved extremely difficult when a mysterious and most likely woman stood across from him. Bruce managed to get himself under control enough that he wasn’t going to suddenly hulk out, and he took a minute to actually look at the pseudo-Tony.

Bruce was quite surprised at what he saw.

What he presumed was a woman masquerading as Tony Stark was actually a young girl of nineteen. At first glance, the girl’s face was a mask of defiance and attitude, but underneath, Bruce could detect the fatigue that plagued the young girl’s bones.

“I want answers. Now!” Bruce demanded.

Toni knew that this was going to be a difficult discussion. She had no idea how the older scientist would react, and she couldn’t let her secret get out. Toni shuddered to think what would happen if Fury was to find out that she had been lying to him all along.

“It’s kind of a long story,” Toni said fidgeting nervously with her fingers.

Anger glinted in Bruce’s golden brown eyes at the evasion of his question.

“I have time.”

Toni decided to tell him the bare minimum in hopes that it would satisfy him. She knew that it probably wouldn’t be enough, but a girl can dream.

 “Look, my dad wanted a boy but got me instead. Of course, I was so amazingly smart that I was able to rebuild a computer in twenty minutes, so he set me to work on weapons. He didn’t want me in the public eye so he created the Tony-bot,” she said gesturing to the suit she still wore.

“You’re only a kid, though,” Bruce murmured to himself just barely loud enough for her to hear.

“Hey, I am most certainly _not_ a kid,” Toni replied indignantly. “I will have you know that I am nineteen years old.”

Bruce shook his head and ignored her huffy attitude in favor for more pressing questions. “First of all, what’s your real name?”

“Still Toni Stark but with an ‘i” instead of a ‘y’.”

“How come you’re only nineteen, but Tony Stark is a middle-aged man?” Bruce asked.

The young girl heaved a sigh as she realized that the older scientist would most definitely not go away without a proper explanation.

“First, let’s go somewhere a little more private so I can get out of this thing. It isn’t exactly the most comfortable suit out there. There’s not even a place to pee. Do you know how annoying it is to take on and off just to go to the bathroom?” Toni rolled her eyes in mock aggravation at her trivial plight, but even she could tell her humor was weak.

Toni wasn’t feeling too great. When she hauled herself from her sitting position, her legs wobbled below her, and black dots crossed her line of sight. Bruce didn’t appear in the mood to help her, so she pushed through the muddle in her mind. Her mask flipped back up to cover her angular face.

“C’mon, big boy. You want answers, follow me,” Toni said with forced bravado. Her voice changed again from its naturally higher pitch to the low tones of the middle-aged Toni-bot. She gestured grandly towards the door sarcastically.

Bruce gave her a dry look. No one around here appreciated her humor. It was a tough world to live in.

Toni shakily stumbled down the hallway ahead of Bruce. The whitewash of the walls didn’t help much with her dizzy spells. Toni knew they were probably because of blood loss. After all, that gash on her wrist had bled a lot despite her rudimentary patch up job. Figure that in with the other minor cuts littering her body, and she knew that she wasn’t in great shape.

Toni desperately hoped that no one else walked by because her façade was going to break down any second. She didn’t want anyone to think she was a crybaby weakling.

It seemed like an eternity before they arrived at her room, but it was really only a matter of minutes. She had to try a couple of times before the door was unlocked. When it finally opened, she staggered into the dimly lit room.

The bed was just how she left it, unkempt and unmade from her close encounter with sleep. A blood splash contrasted sharply with the white of the towel crumpled in the corner. A simple suitcase rested against the wall closest to the bed, and nothing adorned the barren walls surrounding the desolate living space.

Toni lurched inside knocking her suit case over in a hasty descent to the messy bed. Bruce entered warily. He wasn’t usually the trusting type, but here he was with a nineteen year old girl who had been impersonating one of the most famous billionaires for her entire life.

He had no idea why he was following the teenager to a secluded room, but it’s not likely for her to hurt him. After all, he had the Hulk on his side albeit reluctantly on his part. Bruce was more concerned about what would happen to the helicarrier if he did end up Hulking-out.

Toni sighed in relief as the pieces of her suit retracted from their snug mold around her body. She lifted her hips when the chinks of fake skin and mechanics around her backside needed to go into the suit. It wasn’t long before she sat exhausted on the bed in a white fraying and slightly yellowed tank top and athletic shorts.

Toni watched while Bruce took her appearance in now that she was fully herself. His eyes flitted from her weathered skin that was close to pasty from so much time spent in the lab and never getting to go outside down to her ratty black shorts that reached to mid-thigh.

Bruce noticed the silvery raised skin of scars that trailed from her calves to underneath her shorts. He could only make out the most prominent ones, but it sparked his curiosity. She knew from experience that those types of marks did not come easily to a person.

“I’m kind of craving a chocolate chip cookie right about now. What about you? Why don’t you go get me one while I just lay here and take a nice long nap?” Toni rambled trying to avoid the coming discussion.

“Toni, no,” Bruce said flatly. He leveled her with a gaze that demanded she give him actual answers now.

Toni huffed in annoyance at the obstinate man. Why couldn’t he just let it go?

“Look, I am actually Toni Stark. Always have been, and always will be. The Tony Stark that everyone knows isn’t real, I am.”

Bruce eyed her suspiciously. “Why don’t I believe you? It’s not possible for no one to know who you are.”

Toni shrugged lightly, and that simple act took up too much of her energy to be healthy. “It’s the truth. If you want answers why, ask Howard Stark. He was the one that made the Tony-bot and made me design weapons for him.”

Bruce took a minute to process this new development. It didn’t surprise him that Howard Stark would do something so harsh to his daughter. He was used to bad parenting, and Howard Stark seemed pretty selfish.

“So you’ve been doing this your entire life?” Bruce asked.

Toni leaned back on her hands. “Yup. This is the big leagues, and I’m a seasoned pro.”

“Did you have anything to do with Stark industries stopping weapon manufacturing?”

Toni’s eyes flitted everywhere in the room except for at Bruce. “Uh, yeah. That was me. I was bored when I got back. Too much money will do that to a person.”

Bruce could tell her bravado was forced but decided not to push the issue. “Wait, You said when you got back. Was that those couple of months when you were on vacation in the Caribbean?”

“It’s beautiful this time of year, you know, what with the scorching heat and crowds of people,” Toni drawled sarcastically.

Bruce shook his head at the overwhelming amount of information he had just received. His hand came up to rub against his temples.

“So who else knows about all this?” He gestured widely in her general direction.

“Only Pepper, Phil, and you. Obadiah knew, too, but we all saw how well that worked out.” Toni answered muttering the last sentence under her breath, but Bruce still caught part of it.

“Obadiah?” he asked with an inquisitive tilt of his head.

“Yeah, he was kind of like an uncle to me. When Howard died, he took over. I went away, and he took advantage of it. He tried to kill me a couple times, but it was no biggie. He’s gone now, and I got over it.” Toni tried to sound flippant, but she was actually choosing her words with scrutiny.

Bruce couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This guy, Obadiah, actually tried to kill her. What kind of man does that to their surrogate niece?

Toni noticed the look of disgust that marred Bruce’s worn features, and she only hoped that it was because of Obadiah’s traitorous actions and not her own life of deceit.

Suddenly, her throat began to burn with thirst right when he stomach rumbled from lack of food. She pushed herself from the bed with immense effort. It only took her one step to feel the effects of her wounds.

She clutched at her ribs as the aching feeling increased. Her head swam from dizziness, and she fell to her knees.

Bruce looked on in alarm. He rushed to the teenager’s side and checked her pulse. It was irrational that he was relieved that he was able to feel it this time. It was highly improbable that she was in yet another suit. Bruce’s paranoid nature was just kicking in.

The doctor ascertained that Toni was okay to move, so he pulled her to her feet. She leaned heavily on his shoulder as the traveled the short distance to her bed.

Once Toni was laid out, Bruce asked her, “I need to check the wounds. I’m going to have to remove you tank top, and it’s strictly professional. Is that okay?”

Toni nodded in acquiescence and groaned at what the movement did to her growing headache. Bruce carefully lifted the tank top to reveal a black sports bra over medical wrap. Bruce shook his head at the appalling state of the wrap.

“Did you do this?” Bruce asked. “This is terrible.”

“Hey, it’s difficult when you’re injured.”

Bruce chuckled at her attempt at sounding offended. She just sounded like a little girl alone in the world.

Bruce cautiously pushed the sports bra up and unwrapped the medical tape to reveal a nasty purplish yellow bruise that was nearly the size of two hands. Toni hissed when Bruce accidently jostled it, and Bruce winced in sympathy.

“There’s not much I can do for this one except to rewrap it and tell you to take some Advil,” Bruce said.

Toni turned her head away to try to avoid the awkward situation. She did not think of Bruce in that way at all. The very idea was unspeakable; he was almost twice her age.

Now, Toni was vulnerable. Exposed. Bare in more ways than one, and it made her uncomfortable. She hated feeling like this. It had happened before and hadn’t turned out well.

Instinctively, Toni curled into herself despite the pain that flared up from her ribs. Bruce looked at her with a hint of somber knowledge glowing in his eyes. He knew that reaction, and he knew the cause.

Gently, Bruce reached out to her ignoring the small whimper that escaped Toni’s lips. “Hey. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I just need to wrap your ribs again.”

After a minute, Toni unfurled herself to allow Bruce to patch her up. The doctor stretched the medical tape tight around her ribs and chest before pulling the sports bra and tank top back down.

Next, he soothingly reached for the oozing gash on her right wrist. Blood had soaked through the bandages and crusted over. He knew that this wasn’t going to be pleasant.

“Toni, this is going to hurt. I’m going to pull it off on the count of three. Ready, one, two –“ Bruce ripped the bandage off on two so that Toni wasn’t ready for it.

Toni groaned, “What the hell?”

Bruce dripped antiseptic over the gash which made Toni hiss again. Then, he reapplied the bandage before moving on to the various other open cuts.

“You should get some sleep. You look like you need it,” Bruce suggested.

“Thanks, Bruce. Can I have some water first?” Toni asked.

After he gave her some water, Bruce left the room with worry clouding his mind. In her room, Toni cuddled down into the usually uncomfortable blanket that now seemed to have come straight from heaven.

Seconds later, she fell into a much needed deep sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

“What the hell, Bruce!” Toni exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. Her face blazed red underneath the synthetic covering of the Tony-bot. Across from Toni, Bruce gazed at the ground.

“Are you going to answer me? This is serious. C’mon, Banner!”

“It’s not a big deal,” Bruce attempted to placate her.

Toni, however, was having none of it. “If this got out, it would be huge! This could change my life. What were you thinking?” she ranted as she paced from one end of lab to the other.

“Stop being such a drama queen, Toni. It’s not going to kill you if anyone knows.”

Toni huffed in annoyance. She desperately wanted to get away whether it was deep in the confines of her lab at Stark Towers or soaring through the open air in her Iron Man suit.

“Anything else but this Bruce. Anything else,” Toni moaned. “Why did you have to let it slip that I might possible have once occasionally possibly slept with a stuffed animal for a very short period of time in my childhood maybe?”

“Seriously, Toni, it only slipped out because Steve shared an embarrassing story about himself. Barely anyone heard it,” Bruce reasoned calmly.

“It doesn’t even matter who else heard it. It only matters that this was Steve Rogers, Bruce. _Steve Rogers_ ,” Toni said emphasizing the captain’s name.

Bruce tilted his head minutely as he regarded Toni. “Why do you have such a problem with him?”

“He’s an arrogant ass that thinks because he lived through the war and all that shit that he’s better than the rest of us. And he’s the biggest kiss-ass I’ve ever met.”

Bruce shook his head at Toni’s skewed logical reasoning. Sometimes, she could be incredibly arrogant herself. She had to be to think that the entire world was against her.

To her credit, it did usually look that way.                             

In the past week or so, Toni and Bruce had gotten much closer. Mostly they just talked shop and other science related topics. It wasn’t like anyone else on the helicarrier could understand even the simplest thing about quantum mechanics.

While they talked a lot of science and trivial facts, it was an unspoken rule to not bring up either one of their pasts or anymore about Toni’s alter ego. The day after he found out Toni’s secret, Bruce demanded to have a more in depth conversation.

_A knock sounded on Toni’s door, rousing her from her heavenly slumber. She was so tired that she didn’t have her usual nighmares, or if she did, she didn’t remember them._

_The young brunette grumbled unintelligibly under her breath as she wrapped the thin blanket tighter around her inert form._

_“Toni, it’s me, Bruce,” came the voice from the other side of the door._

_She groaned in annoyance; she really didn’t want to finish their conversation from last night. She just wanted to get on with her screwed up life in peace – or what equaled peace in her world._

_Toni stumbled to her feet, dragging the blanket after her. She threw the door open to reveal a clean shaven Bruce Banner standing on the other side in his standard dark colored button-up shirt and pants. His glasses were pushed up his nose, and a strand of dark, curly hair fell over his forehead._

_“What do you want?” Toni asked disgruntledly._

_“We need to clear a few things up.”_

_Toni didn’t move from the doorway. She really didn’t want to have this conversation. Her ribs hurt like a bitch, she was starting to get a headache, and she just wanted to fall back to sleep in her dingy little cot._

_“Go away. There’s nothing left to talk about. This doesn’t change anything. I’m still the same person.”_

_Bruce didn’t back down from Toni’s harsh glare. “Tell me why I shouldn’t let Fury in on your secret.”_

_Toni’s face hardened, but internally she was cussing herself out for slipping up in front of Bruce last night._

_Toni stepped aside reluctantly. “Look, you better come inside if we’re gonna do this.”_

_The doctor stepped in the miniscule room. To the left, he noticed the bloody tank top and towel still crumpled in the corner. On the wobbly side table, the first aid kit lay open._

_Neither Bruce nor Toni sat down. Both of them were on their guard and ready for anything that was going to happen._

_Toni stared Bruce down, her angular features made even harsher in the dim lighting. “You tell anyone, and I will end you. You so much as breath a word of this out loud and . . .”_

_“And what? What can you do to me? The other guy won’t let that happen. Trust me; I’ve tried. Put a bullet through my brain, and the other guy spit it out.” Bruce’s face was somber as he looked down on the shorter teenager. His calm demeanor was a fragile covering for his eternally brewing anger; and with each day, more and more cracks appeared._

_Toni was taken aback by this new information. It was horrible to know that someone – a middle-aged man no less – had been at such a low point in his life that he had done more than just think about ending it and had actually tried to kill himself._

_The billionaire saw Bruce as invincible, as the steadiness amidst a sea of chaos. Toni’s life was never simple. She never had that comforting constancy that seemed to tag along with most childhoods. As a child, she was sheltered in her lab with no clue about the real world._

_She discovered tragedy at a young age, not even having hit puberty yet. As a teenager, she was exposed to the worst flaws of the human character possible. She knew what human nature was capable of._

_If someone were to ask Toni now, though, she would say that her childhood was no worse than any other. She may have had a few bumps in the road but nothing too life altering._

_That presumption was totally wrong._

_Anyone could see it; it was right under the surface. Her pain was nearly palpable if someone were to actually take the time to look._

_Bruce noticed Toni’s thunderstruck expression. She just didn’t know what to say. It was true; she couldn’t hurt Bruce. It just wasn’t possible._

_“Look, I’m not going to tell anyone. I just want to know why. Why don’t you just tell people now that your father’s gone? It would make things much easier for you,” Bruce wondered._

_In truth, Toni had thought about it but had decided not to. If this got out, people would talk. They would ask questions that she didn’t necessarily want to answer._

_“It’s just easier this way. No one questions a middle-age guy saving the world. If they knew I was a teenage girl, there would be a ton of moral questions. Besides, no one takes a teenage girl seriously,” Toni answered with a shrug._

_Bruce nodded in acceptance._

_“One last thing. ‘Toni’ seriously? Not very creative. Why not just leave the ‘y,’ or give you a new name entirely?” Bruce asked with raised eyebrows._

_Toni let a chuckle slip out. “Yeah, blame that one on Howard. I think it was easier for him to remember if the names were the same. I guess it’s short for Antonia or something like that, but you ever call me that, and I will make your life a living hell.”_

_The doctor raised his hands in mock surrender. “Fine, fine. My lips are sealed.”_

_Toni rolled her eyes at the older man’s antics. “God, I think I’ve been rubbing off on you. Next thing I know, you’re going to be sassing Fury.”_

Things were fairly calm on the Avengers’ floating headquarters since then. The imprisoned Loki wasn’t putting up too much of a fuss, and the two scientists had no updates on the location of the Tesseract. Thor was visiting his girl, Jane while he had the time. Things were going to get crazy quickly so the god was on call if needed. Agent Romanov was off doing whatever spies normally do in their free time.

Toni had no idea what Rogers was doing, and she couldn’t quite bring herself to care. That man could go rot in hell for all she cared.

Bruce noted the way Toni’s eyes blazed with thinly disguised fury. He knew that Toni had been through so much at such a young age, but this wasn’t healthy. Toni’s mind was a steel lockbox that only the most elite of lock pickers could break into, and Bruce didn’t have a single lock picking tool.

Toni needed someone who understood her past but wouldn’t disregard it. She needed someone to hold her hand when she was down and to see past the façade of cockiness she wore more comfortably than her own skin.

Bruce didn’t feel comfortable helping anyone in a way more than purely physical. He could patch up a couple of cuts and bruises, but emotional comfort was most definitely not his forte.

His past was colorful enough as it was.

“I should probably get back to work on this. You need to eat. It’s been since last night,” Bruce told Toni firmly.

Now that he had brought it up, Toni could feel the twisted knot in the pit of her stomach signaling her need for nourishment. Sometimes, Toni was so into her research that the idea of food seemed to slip her mind.

“Fine, fine. I’ll grab something in a minute. I just need to finish this last thing.” Toni was engrossed in the holographic screen inches from her face. Her fingers tapped furiously in the air, and Bruce could only guess at what she was searching for.

“Almost there . . . one last thing . . . just . . .  let it download . . . and . . . done,” Toni muttered under her breath. A smile spread across the fake skin of the Tony-bot as she took in the results.

“Toni,” Bruce warned, “What are you doing?”

“You know, the usual. Cat pictures, gamma research, hacking into the mainframe, youtube videos. Nothing too important.”

Toni flipped through the screens that popped up in front of her, waiting for Bruce to process what she so flippantly said. Bruce was bent studiously over his research with his curly hair falling in front of his face. A second later, his head flipped up to look at Toni in alarm.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘hacking’?” Bruce asked. His voice held a note of barely disguised panic.

Toni cut the doctor a critical look. “Do you honestly believe everything that Fury is feeding you?”

“Why would he lie?”

“Seriously,” Toni huffed. For someone so smart he could be really dense sometimes. “Fury is the master spy, the spy that spies on all the other spies.  His secrets have secrets. Do you know how many things he could have hidden under that eye patch of his?”

Bruce stood up straight with a heavy sigh. “I’m only here to find the Tesseract. If I knew that SHIELD would leave me alone, I wouldn’t even be here. I don’t want to get into the politics. I want to find this thing, and go back to peace and quiet.”

“Do you really think SHIELD is only using the Tesseract as an energy source? Just because people think you’re a mindless beast doesn’t mean you have to act like one,” Toni may have come off as joking and slightly patronizing, but Bruce could detect the note of seriousness buried underneath.

“What did you – ,” Bruce was cut off by the doors of the lab pushing open.  

Captain Rogers stepped through the doors, gaining the attention of both scientists. He stood tall and muscular against the dark doors with his blonde hair standing out against his tan skin.  He cut a striking figure, but Toni couldn’t take him seriously with his skin tight suit adorned with the good ole fashioned stars and stripes.

“Making any progress?” Rogers asked. Toni turned her back, using her research as an excuse to ignore the pretentious man. Bruce, however, felt the need to actually engage in conversation.

“We’ve narrowed down the signature field of the radiation, but we haven’t been able to accurately pinpoint it yet. We’re in the process of scanning Loki’s staff. It’s still an unknown entity,” Bruce explained.

Rogers nodded as if he could understand anything that Bruce was saying. Toni scoffed under her breath at his cluelessness. All those years on ice hadn’t really helped his pop-culture references.

Unknown to Toni, Steve had heard the minute sound of disrespect. At the moment, he decided to ignore it. He really didn’t know what Tony’s problem was, but Steve really didn’t want to get into it here and now.

“That’s good.”

Toni rolled her eyes again. Disdain practically dripped from her every pore.

“Good? _Good!_ That took days to figure out. We’ve been working on this for hours, using technology that you could never even dream of, nevertheless figure out how to read, and all you can say is ‘ _good’_?” By the end of her rant, Toni was livid.

Bruce noticed Rogers’ face hardening as he listened to Toni’s tirade, but it didn’t appear as if Toni was aware of it.

“What is your problem with me? Have I done something to you, done something to make you hate me? We’ve never even met before this!” Rogers exploded.

Toni rolled her eyes again. “Maybe you’re just an ass.”

“Maybe you’re just a stuck up, selfish bastard with no regard to others,” Rogers shot back. His eyes blazed with fury, and he crowded in on Toni’s personal space.

Bruce saw how heated their argument was getting and decided that he should probably step in before they really started going at it. Then again, he didn’t want to get himself too riled up trying to calm them down.

“You don’t know anything about me,” Toni spat at Rogers, unconsciously leaning closer. She looked like she was about to punch him square in the face.

“Big man in a suit of armor. Take that away and what are you?” Rogers said viciously.

Toni leaned back with a smirk. “Stark naked.”

At that one, Bruce had to muffle his laughter in his hand. Toni was happy with herself, but this only seemed to enrage the captain further.

“Everything’s a joke to you, huh? Can you be serious for at least ten minutes?”

Toni mocked indecision and just to annoy him more said, “Well, I could, but I think I would die of boredom, and the world can _not_ go on without me.”

Rogers went silent for a minute. He seemed to be contemplating the mystery of a man in front of him before finally saying more calmly, “What would Howard think of you now?”

Fire blazed to life in Toni, blocking out all rational reasoning and thought. She was consumed by rage, and she fleetingly wondered if this was what Bruce felt like.

“Don’t _ever_ bring Howard Stark into this ever again. He wasn’t everything you think he was. He had _flaws_ , just like you, just like me,” Toni vehemently yet very quietly warned.

With that last piece of advice, Toni turned sharply on her heel and stormed out of the lab leaving a bewildered Rogers and a resigned Bruce behind.


	8. Chapter 8

Toni was mad. No, she was past mad.

She was furious. She was livid, fuming, wrathful.

And all because of one guy, all because of Steve freaking-perfect Rogers.

Rogers was everything Toni wasn’t. He was obedient, modest, and had not one sarcastic bone in his body. And everyone seemed to love him.

Even Howard Stark loved him.                                                           

Toni was so caught up in her internal ranting that she barely noticed the trek back to her room in the far wing of the helicarrier. She pounded the numbers into the keypad angrily, and the door slid open.

The teen billionaire stomped into her room with heavy steps. As soon as the door shut behind her, Toni started cursing loudly to the empty room and ripped the Toni-suit from her skin.

“God damn fucking Rogers. So fucking perfect all the fucking time. Full of shit. Fucking asshole.”

Toni’s vision went red, and the next thing she knew, her body was moving without her brain’s content.

“Ahh, fuck. Fucking hell, that really fucking hurt,” Toni shouted, clutching her bleeding hand. Shattered glass lay scattered on the floor. On the wall, there was an empty spot where the mirror used to hang.

All of the anger left Toni’s body, visibly deflating her. She collapsed against the wall, sliding to the ground and dropped her head in her hands.

This whole thing was so screwed up. She was used to lying and keeping secrets; after all, her entire life was built on a series of lies.

But Toni was tired of it. It was emotionally taxing to keep this charade up. All she wanted to do was go home and curl up in her bed with a good movie and a carton of ice cream, and Pepper nagging her to actually get out of the house.

Now, Toni knew that none of this was seriously going to happen. Despite everyone’s claim that she was a selfish bastard with no regard for others, Toni really did have a sense of duty. Granted, it was buried deep in the recesses of her mind, but the whole Afghanistan thing seemed to have dug it up.

Toni still didn’t understand how things with Rogers could have gotten so twisted up. Apparently, Toni was such an abomination to the human race that even the humble and all-forgiving Captain Steve Rogers couldn’t stand her. Not that the feeling wasn’t mutual.

Toni hated Rogers, mostly just because of Howard. Howard never stopped talking about Steve Rogers this and Steve Rogers that.  It was sickening for a grown man to idolize someone so completely and blindly.

But Toni could admit that she needed to be civil with the guy if only for the sake of the team and the free world and pretty much the entire universe.

Having a conscious was really annoying sometimes.

Fortunately, being social and pleasant towards others of the human race could wait. She had been up for a couple days now and desperately needed her standard four hours. First things first, Toni needed a soothing, hot shower to wash away some of the grime that came with this job, be it figurative or not.

Her arms wobbled slightly as they heaved her rumpled form from the ground, signaling the necessity of rest. Her legs weren’t much better as they carried her to the closet of a shower.

Now in front of a bare oval mirror with questionable streaks crisscrossing the surface, Toni shed her threadbare tank top and shorts. The sharp fluorescent lighting illuminated the harsh line of her jaw in the mirror and washed out her roughened skin. Her dark eyes appeared sunken in and gave a haunting quality that was only accentuated by the lack of light reflected in the pupils.

If Toni had seen this face walking down the street, she would have been alarmed. It was frightening. Her cheekbones stood out sharply, and her face was gaunt from her irregular eating habits.

It was a good thing no one ever really saw this face. A total of five people, now including Bruce, had had the pleasure of viewing her true appearance and surviving the consequences.

Toni pulled herself out of her deep personal analysis and turned on the shower. After a minute, steam wafted from behind the curtain to fog up the mirror. She dragged her weary body under the warm spray with a sigh of relief.

Eventually, the water ran cold, and Toni dragged herself out into the cool air of the bathroom. She wrapped a soft towel around her shoulders and another around her sopping, shoulder length hair as her toes sunk into the damp bathmat thrown on the tile floor.

A couple minutes later, Toni was tucked under the scratchy blankets on her bed wearing an oversized band shirt worn down to a dull gray from overuse. She tossed around on her bed for a solid hour before deciding that sleep wasn’t going to happen tonight. Toni could tell when her night was going to be filled with nightmares, and she would really like to avoid it as much as possible. No sleep means no nightmares, and Toni could easily go without.

Seeing as she had nothing else to do, Toni flicked on the lights, donned her Robo-suit, and wandered out the door. In the hallway, the lights were blindingly bright compared to her dark room. She was glad that Phil had gotten her a room on the farthest and most deserted wing of the aircraft. No one else was around to bother her.

Toni padded down the hallway, somewhat at a loss as of what to do with herself. She figured if she roamed around a while, she would find something to keep herself occupied. The hallways twisted and turned several times before opening out into one of the common areas. Several crew members manned computers while others were chatting by the coffee maker.

Furtively, Toni slid past the scattering of people to an adjoining hallway. She passed a couple of generic white doors before encountering a glass door. Peering inside, Toni noticed no people. All she could see was rumpled gray mats on the floor, various weapons hung on racks by the far wall, and a compilation of workout equipment.

Apparently, Toni had stumbled upon the training room. She figured this was as good a use of her time as any, and plus, no one was in there.

Inside, the room actually extended much farther than the view from the door suggested. In the back were a set of monkey bars and a couple of climbing ropes.

The putrid stench of stale sweat made Toni’s nose wrinkle in disgust although it did bring a touch of familiarity. Back home, Toni had an entire floor devoted to training and not only with her suit. She worked on her combat without the suit, too.

After Afghanistan, she knew she needed to be able to protect herself. Also, being Iron Man did bring quite a few enemies, and the suit couldn’t do all the work.

Toni even tried to get Pepper to learn some basic self-defense. Pepper had tried, but Toni wasn’t the best teacher. Toni only relented after Pepper learned a couple moves that could come in handy should she ever need to protect herself.

Toni trained both with the Tony-bot and without. Training with it was similar to the Iron Man suit, albeit the Tony-bot was a lot thinner and more flexible. After all, Toni had to wear the Tony-bot inside the Iron Man suit just in case. 

The nineteen year old flew through her warm-up; she hated warming up. In battle, no one has time to stretch for twenty minutes, and besides, Toni was an impatient person who liked to cut right to the chase.

Before starting her workout, Toni noticed a stereo system in the corner. Happily, she plugged in her music and fiddled with the controls. Soon, the teenager was drumming her hands along to the Ministry song that blared from the speakers

Her workout started with weights. It was not easy pretending to be a man that was expected to be able to bench at least a hundred pounds more than she actually could. Because of that, she spent a lot of time bench-pressing.

After a couple sets, Toni moved on to the monkey bars. She swung across them a couple of times before using one as a pull up bar. Sweat beaded on her forehead only to dissipate when a blast of cool air swept through the suit. After what happened the first time she worked out in the Tony-bot, she had installed an air conditioning system. She did not need a repeat of falling from a twenty-foot high climbing rope due to overheating.

Her workout continued on for another two hours and was filled with intense cardio and strength training. Toni really wasn’t up for working with a weapon. That required too much concentration, and concentration was something Toni was sorely lacking that night.

Now thoroughly exhausted, she dragged herself out of the room after grabbing her music. Toni noticed that it was a little past three in the morning, so she was hoping that not many people were out and about.

This time, Toni took the more direct route back to her room. The hallway led past the lab she and Bruce were working in earlier and through the main headquarters. A few people still kept watch on the computers, but it was considerably less people than in the daytime.

Lost in thought, Toni barely noticed where she was when she passed the glass cage holding Loki. It was only because she noticed a stirring of movement in her peripheral that she stopped.

Her curiosity got the better of her, and she decided that sleep could wait another few minutes. Toni had some questions to ask the enigmatic god of mischief.

When she looked into the prison, all she could see was a huddled mass of green clothe and leather. It seemed that the resident villain was sleeping. His positioning looked rather uncomfortable as he was leaning against the rounded wall with his neck cricked at an odd angle.

Disregarding Loki’s slumber, Toni pounded roughly against the glass. Slowly, one chillingly blue eye slid open to peer at the disruption. Seeing the middle-aged Tony Stark, Loki opened both eyes and pulled himself to his feet.

With an unnatural grace, the god languidly stretched his arms above his head and cracked his neck. Even this simple move held power and intimidation. After a minute of stretching his body out, Loki leveled his glare at Toni.

Toni, for her part, didn’t flinch back. She held her ground against his piercing stare. The god was the first to break the silence.

“So, man of iron, what brings you to my humble abode?” he asked with an arrogant smirk.

“Oh, just wanted to see how the prisoner was doing. Just being my usual charitable self,” Toni replied flippantly.

A sly grin slowly crept up Loki’s angular face, revealing shining white teeth that contrasted sharply with his jet black hair.

“Oh, are you now? Or maybe you have questions for me. What is that silly little human saying? Something about a feline?”

Toni rolled her eyes. “Curiosity killed the cat.”

“Ah, yes, that is the one,” the villain looked contemplatively at Toni. “Well, you have questions for me, do you not?”

“Well, since you asked, I do have a couple things.” Toni quickly pulled her thoughts together. There was so much she wanted to ask him about, but she knew he wouldn’t answer all of them. She had to choose wisely.

“Why? Why are you doing all this?”

Power seeped through every pore of Loki’s being as he drew himself to his full height. His voice radiated authority, yet he did not yell.

Instead, his low rumble was much more intimidating when he said, “You were made to be ruled. It is the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. In the end, you will always kneel, and soon, it will be me you kneel before.”

As he spoke, he moved closer to the glass wall. His speech caused shivers to roll down her spine. Fortunately, the Tony-bot hid her nerves. Toni squared her shoulders against Loki’s verbal onslaught.

“That will _never_ happen. I will not allow it. _We_ will not allow it,” Toni said, spreading her arms as if to encompass the entirety of the helicarrier.

“I do not think you can stop me. I am a god!” He roared on the last word.

“You’re a sorry excuse for one. It didn’t take much to capture you,” Toni snapped back.

Loki leveled her with a glare that burned to her very core. “I do seem to remember one or two times during battle that must have left a few scars or at least a bruise or two.”

Toni gave him a sardonically sweet smile. “Ah, it’s so nice of you to care, but unless you were fighting a different battle, I remember it was us, the good guys, who won.”

“Was it? Did you really win? Or maybe this is what I wanted all along.  You ‘heroes,’” Loki spat out. “You are all the same. You act without thinking. You speak of saving lives, yet you let war rage on. You claim your power is used for good, yet what do you do? You are nothing but pawns in a world of kings.”

At this point, both hero and villain were leaning close to the glass partition that separated them. Loki’s words burned a rage in Toni.

“I save lives. I am a hero,” Toni yelled.

Loki tilted his head. “Not even you think that. You are filled with self-loathing, especially after what those men did, what you allowed them to do to you.”

Toni paled at his words. “How do you know about that?” her whispered question morphed into a furious yell. “How do you know about that? I let them do nothing! They held me captive. They tortured me! I couldn’t stop them!”

“I know your secret, and I know what happened in those caves,” Loki rumbled lowly.

“How do you know?” Toni screamed, pounding a fist on the glass.

“I _am_ the god of mischief and lies. I can see through your dim disguise.”

Toni fell against the glass, her head in her hands. “Oh, god. Oh, god. What am I going to do?” Toni kept muttering unintelligible phrases under her breath. She could feel the oncoming panic attack.

Behind her, Loki gazed down at Toni’s shaking form. It was a weird sight to see, a middle-aged man sitting on the floor shaking as if crying yet no tears running down his face.

For a second, something that looked like concern flashed across Loki’s face, but it was gone in an instant. After a minute of Toni shaking against the cage, she pulled herself together enough to stand up.

“You tell _no one_ about this. Do you understand?” Toni threatened.

“Your secret is safe with me,” Loki replied deviously. Toni knew it was only a matter of time before Loki used her secret for his benefit, but she couldn’t deal with this right now. All of the memories she had shoved down were rising to the surface.

She had to go.

Toni raced down the hallway, back to her room. She took back hallways so no one saw her panic attack. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, but it had been awhile. She had thought that she had this under control.

Toni only made it to her door before she collapsed. Her fingers scratched at the keypad, trying to type in the password, but her brain was cooperating. Her vision was starting to go black from lack of oxygen to her brain.

Toni tried to control her breathing, but she couldn’t stop herself from hyperventilating. It only took a minute before she slumped against the door, and her hand fell limp next to her. Then, Toni passed out.


	9. Chapter 9

_Smack_

Toni’s head whipped sideways. A voice came in and out of focus in the distance. It sounded like it was muffled by water, like there was a cloth covering it.

Slowly, Toni regained full capacity of her senses. It came gradually. First, was her hearing.

“-happened?”

“-don’t know.”

“-okay?”

“He’s breathing-“

“-should be fine.”

The scent of disinfectant burned Toni’s nose as she took a long drag of air.

“He’s coming to.”

“Get some water for when he wakes up.”

Feeling came back into Toni’s hands and feet. They tingled at first, but after a minute, she could wiggle her fingers and toes a little.

“He’s moving.”

 Finally, Toni was able to see.

Toni’s eyes flicked open, breaking apart the crust that had formed while unconscious. Immediately, Toni slammed them shut again, groaning at the brightness.

“Tony, can you hear me?”

A dark silhouette leaned over Toni’s slumped form, blocking most of the light from the hallway. Toni was too groggy to make out exactly who it was, but she hoped it was anyone except for Rogers. Best case scenario, Bruce had found her.

Unfortunately, that was unlikely. If he had been the one to find her, he would have brought her somewhere private and removed her disguise so he could help her.

As if reminding her, the rough, broken metal of the Tony-bot rubbed against Toni’s skin as she shifted slightly. A strangled groan escaped her lips at the movement.

“Whoa, take it easy.” Now that she was more conscious, Toni could tell that the voice was definitely female.

Gradually, the person that went along with the voice came into focus. First, was the hair. It was a fiery red bob that framed a pair of angular cheekbones.  A pair of guarded blue eyes were outlined in black liner, making the blankness in them stand out. After a minute of processing what she was seeing, Toni realized it was Agent Romanov in her skintight black suit.

It took an even longer time for her to notice that Romanov was not the only one there.

Toni bolted to her feet in terror, or she attempted to. It was difficult after lying on the floor for an innumerable amount of time. Her limbs were stiff from disuse, and she was still disoriented.

Panic swept over Toni. The group had her boxed against the wall, trapped. She was trapped.

Oh, god. Not again. Not again. This couldn’t happen. Not again. She wouldn’t let it.

Toni stumbled to her feet. Her body automatically shaped itself in a defensive position, protecting itself. Her back was pressing against the wall. She could feel the imprint of the doorframe against her spine.

Fear caused her thoughts to go wild, racing around in her head and bouncing off the walls. Toni kept her eyes on the figures around her. She couldn’t make out who they were; the panic clouded her sight. With extreme caution, Toni inched towards the keypad to her room.

At that moment, Toni’s eyes met Romanov’s. Living up to her reputation, her expression was smooth and blank. Toni had no idea what she was thinking.

A fight with Agent Romanov would be challenging. Toni wouldn’t bet her last dollar on the outcome what with Natasha being a superspy and all.

Toni hid her shaking hand behind her body so that the group couldn’t see it. The last thing she wanted was for her potential attackers to notice her terror. People like that fed off of fear.

It took Toni a minute to realize that Romanov was talking to her, asking her a question.

“Toni, did you hear me? What happened?” Natasha asked with calculating eyes.

The teenager’s wide eyes darted around, taking in all of the possible escape routes. She could make a run for it, but she probably wouldn’t get far. She could stand and fight, but she was still a little woozy from her spout of unconsciousness. Of course, she could always wait it out and see what they have planned. Then again, people’s motives usually aren’t for the better of others. Toni had found that out the hard way.

That only left one viable option. Toni would have to escape into her room. Luckily, the door was right behind her. All she had to do was distract them long enough for her to type in the key code.

Unfortunately, Romanov was still watching her, waiting for Toni’s answer.

“Oh, you know. Had a couple glasses of whiskey and a few shots of vodka with a couple of the ladies on board. Must’ve passed out before the fun could start,” Toni lied, adding a wink to the end of the explanation just to piss Natasha off.

It was a good thing Toni had been lying her entire life. The fib rolled smoothly off her tongue as she eased into her alter ego’s mindset.

The spy looked disgusted with Toni. “You’re such a pig.”

“Aww, pet names. How cute. I didn’t know you thought of me that way,” The engineer drawled sarcastically.

“In your dreams,” Natasha spat.

Toni leaned closer, the banter distracting her from some of her fear. “No, sweetheart, in yours. Or is that reserved for Agent Barton?”

The fake middle-aged man leaned back with a smug grin. It was so easy to rile people up. Smoke was practically rolling off of Romanov, and Toni could feel the anger permeating the air. Toni was satisfied with herself; usually, Natasha was a tough nut to crack.

It seemed like Hawkeye was the chink in her armor. It probably didn’t help that the agent was currently betraying SHIELD and more importantly, Natasha. On the other hand, it wasn’t his fault that he was brainwashed by an evil god.

“At least I have someone who cares,” Natasha said in a dangerously even voice.

The truth of her statement struck Toni hard in the gut. She couldn’t deny it. It was a total mystery why Pepper put up with the genius’ damaged self. The entire world thought they were dating, and the media was constantly wondering why Pepper was with the playboy, billionaire Tony Stark.  

“Might not be for much longer if SHIELD has anything to say about it,” Toni said cruelly. As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew it was a low blow.

Natasha’s face showed pain for a split second before it was hidden away behind her carefully blank expression.

“Well, if you’re fine, I’ll just check on Dr. Banner’s progress,” Romanov said with no emotion before turning on her heel. As she walked away, so did her posse of unnamed crew members.

The minute the group turned the corner, Toni’s breathe left her in a _woosh_ of relief. Her hand was still shaking when she typed in the key code to her room. Once she was inside, she realized that she didn’t ask why Agent Romanov and the other crew members were in this side hallway. Phil had all but guaranteed that no one would bother her down here. Toni mentally shrugged away the question. She would let it worry her later.

Times like that made Toni realized how far she had deteriorated since Afghanistan. After the incident, Toni had just shoved it away.

A Stark is never weak. Emotions equal weakness. Therefore, a Stark never shows emotions.

Afghanistan is the epitome of emotion for Toni. She can barely even hear the word without having a flashback.

In hindsight, Toni should have realized that all that emotion crap would come back to haunt her. She can only push things down so far before they come popping back up.

Not that Toni’s not going to try. She is going to push it down as far as she can and live in happy, blissful denial for as long as humanly possible, or she might just die before anything comes back to bite her in the butt because she is a superhero and all.

Safely back in her barren room, Toni collapsed onto the wiry bed in an exhausted heap.

_God, life is just so exhausting sometimes._


	10. Chapter 10

Toni was jolted out of her fitful sleep by the jarring blare of alarms. She flew straight up in bed in, all remnants of sleep gone. It took her a minute to register the sound, but the minute she did, Toni was flying out of her room.

Around her, agents were rushing into motion. Orders were shouted. Frantic reports were called out. In the midst of it all, the other Avengers gathered.

Not stopping her motions, Toni called the suit to her. By the time she got to the rest of the team, she was fully suited up and ready for action.

“What’s going on?” Toni asked the group over the panic of the room.

“Loki’s escaped,” Rogers answered, his usually coiffed hair ruffled.

“What do you mean he escaped? How is that possible?” Toni shot back, but even as she asked, her mind was racing through the possible ways that it could have happened.

“It seems that we never really had him in the first place,” Natasha answered. Even amid the panic, she was as collected as she ever is with only the deep circles under her eyes revealing how ragged she’s been running.

Thor piped up, sounding especially forlorn. “My brother has tricked us with his magical ways, much as he has done in our childhood. His presence here was merely a magical representation of him. His actual being resides elsewhere.”

“Well, shit,” was all Toni could say.

“That doesn’t explain all of the alarms, though,” Bruce said. The lines on his face had deepened in worry, and his glasses sat askew on his face.

Again, it was Rogers that spoke up. “That’s the worst part. He left some kind of bomb here with a message that it’s going to go off in exactly ten minutes, and he didn’t tell us where it is. Apparently, it’s a magical bomb so there’s no way of diffusing it.”

“Well, doesn’t that seem a little far-fetched?” Toni asked, still slightly bewildered but thankful that nobody could see it beneath the iron man suit.

Rogers just glowered at her. “Well, have you seen who we are? I would believe anything right now, even that you were a selfless, decent human being.”

Next to him, Bruce looked like he wanted to speak up in defense of Toni, but she cut him off before he had the chance.

“Wow, Cap, surprised you still got some burns left in you after being iced for seventy years,” Toni shot back to mask the sharp ache that burned through her.

“Just so you know, I’m not a total – “Steve’s retort was cut off by Natasha forcing her way in between the two men who now stood chest to chest.

“Would you two stop bickering like jilted school children and focus on the task at hand?” Natasha’s voice was even but firm with a lacing of steel supporting her words.

Ashamed, Steve stepped back. Toni, on the other hand, remained where she stood. The Iron Man suit was fairly imposing even against the incredibly built super soldier, but Toni wasn’t willing to show any weakness.

_A Stark is never weak_.

Steve snapped back into action mode and started spouting out orders. “Right. So, first things first, we need to find the thing. Thor, you know him best. Where is he most likely to have put it?”

Thor’s eyebrows scrunched in thought. “Based on our childhood games, Loki would position it somewhere close by that would be easily over looked. As you Midgardians say, right under our noses. It will also be in a place that will most likely cause the most damage to this vessel.”

Putting aside her anger, Toni piped up. “Blueprints! Let me just pull them up real quick.” Muttering to herself, she quickly had the helicarrier’s designs on her interface in the suit.

“It looks like the most vulnerable place would be the engine room.”

“Natasha, start looking for it. Take Dr. Banner with you, seeing as he has the most experience with this kind of thing. Radio as soon as you find anything,” Rogers ordered.

Natasha gave a curt nod before running off. Bruce followed quickly after with only a quick look back at Toni.

“Hey, I resent that! I have just as much experience, if not more, with this kind of thing.” Toni said indignantly now that the two of them were alone in the conference room.  Outside the glass walls, agents ran around in chaos.

“I know I can count on Dr. Banner to do the right thing.”

“His name is Bruce, just so you know. And I can do the right thing. In fact, I can never do wrong.” Toni said her voice tinny from the suit.

Rogers leaned closer into her space. Even with the suit on, he was an impressive three inches taller than her and being a super soldier didn’t hinder his intimidation factor whatsoever.

“Just so you know, I hate bullies. I don’t care who they are, so you better watch out.”

With those parting words, Rogers stormed off in search of Fury.

Shrugging off his warning, Toni made her way over to the agents desperately typing on the computers. Her face plate flipped up, revealing the fake Tony robot.

“Any luck so far?” Toni asked with fake cheerfulness.

Most of the agents ignored her save for one.

“No luck. Can’t find any magical heat signature anywhere,” a young blond agent spoke up, her voice cutting through the frenzied atmosphere.

“Did you try factoring out the heat of the engines that may cover any signature and factor in the turbo engines hidden in the hull? Cross analyze the signature of fake reindeer games with anything that may be lurking underneath the heat signatures of the ship. See if that pulls any matches.”

The agent turned her head back to her computer as she rapidly entered the new information.

“You won’t be able to locate anything specifically magical, but you can cross reference the signs and changes with the past signatures of the helicarrier. For example, abnormal heat waves, change in temperature, anything like that,” Toni explained.

“Stark,” Rogers yelled sharply.

Rolling her eyes, Toni spun around to face the captain.

“What?”

“Why aren’t you helping? Do you not understand what’s happening? I thought you were supposed to be a genius or something.”

Anger shot through Toni, but she repressed it before any could show on her face.

“Yeah, well, my talents are better used in a different manner,” she suggested with a wink.

Rogers face hardened into an expression of disgust. Toni had to keep reminding herself that Rogers thought that Toni was a thirty something sex fiend playboy.

Before either the captain or Toni could respond, a voice piped up.

“Stark, we got a hit.”

Toni rushed over. “Tell me. Now.”

“Lower east bay. Ninety-eight degrees and rising. Concentrated in a two foot radius,” the agent barked out.

Before the agent even finished her report, Toni raced off.

Metal hallways flashed by. Rogers chased behind her. The joint of the Tony-bot rubbed against her ankle. She would have a sore there later.

The tiles seemed to race by underneath Toni’s feet.

Air left her lungs in short puffs.

Someone was behind her.

Toni was too focused to care.

In what seemed like seconds, Toni skidded to a stop at the lower east bay.

The lower east bay was bustling with people. On a normal day, the area was a busy place, so Toni wasn’t surprised that Loki hid the bomb here. It was just like him to be so flagrant about it.

“Out of the way,” Rogers bellowed.

Agents scattered like terrified ants, scurrying out of the room.

Without Toni noticing, Natasha appeared next to her. Rogers must have called her and Bruce on the comms.

“Okay, spread out,” Rogers ordered.

“Jarvis, scan the room for any abnormal temperatures.”

On her helmet display, figures scrolled across her eye line. Running the thermal view of the room, Toni noticed an abnormality in the heat signatures. In the far left corner, behind the row of ergonomic steel desks, an object was radiating far too much heat to be nothing.

“Cap, I think I’ve got something,” Toni said as she quickly approached the area. She couldn’t see any tangible object, but the thermal display still detected heat waves emanating from that spot.

“God, I hate magic,” Toni muttered to herself.

She crouched down next to where the bomb was supposed to be. The metal of her suit clanked against the metal floor and echoed in the now empty room.

“What is it?” the captain asked behind her.

“I don’t know. I think it’s cloaked or something. Whatever it is, it’s throwing off some major heat waves here,” Toni mumbled, almost to herself as she concentrated on her display.

Bruce bent down on her right and reached his hand out to the heat. Immediately, Toni snatched his hand back.

“Don’t do that. It’s already a hundred degrees and climbing. Don’t know how it’s triggered. Touching it might set it off.”

“Touching what? I don’t see anything there,” Natasha said coolly, only a hint of confusion seeping through her normally perfect façade.

“Magic?” Rogers asked.

“You got it, Cap. God damn fucking magic,” Toni spat out.

“What do we do?” Natasha asked.

Toni glanced at Bruce. Obviously, neither had any clue about what they should do. Science tended to be like that.

Of course, they couldn’t say that out loud. Rogers hated Toni enough as it was. She really didn’t need to give him another reason.

“No one else touch it. We don’t know what it might do. Also, you’ll burn your hands off. I don’t know about you, but that’s not really my idea of a good time.”

Slowly, Toni reached her metal covered hands out towards the invisible heat source. The young genius could practically see the heat waves as they reached her armor.

“Wait, Tony, what are you doing?” Bruce asked. His voice rose slightly, conveying his concern.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

Inch by inch, Toni moved forward on her knees until she was completely submerged in the scorching heat. At the center of it all, Toni’s foot hit a solid object. Looking down, Toni wasn’t surprised to see nothing blocking her path.  

If there’s one thing Toni’s learned since Loki showed up, it’s that you can’t predict magic.

Still on her knees, Toni reached for where she thought the object was. Sure enough, her hand met an object. With both metal hands, Toni felt around the object to get a vague shape.

The bomb – she assumed it was the bomb, anyway – appeared to be a cube. It was about a foot and a half long on each side and seemed completely solid.

Holding back her hope, Toni attempted to lift the bomb. The magical explosive was infinitely heavy, and Toni was sure that her suit wasn’t going to be enough to lift it.

But then, one inch at a time, with her suit straining to its max, the invisible bomb detached from the floor of the helicarrier. When it was finally in her hands, Toni shot up from her crouched position.

“Sir, the heat is burning through the armor. In approximately one minute and thirty five seconds, it will have reached your suit underneath the armor. Twenty seconds after that, it will have reached your skin,” Jarvis said in his British accent.

“Got it, buddy,” Toni replied, her voice strained by the weight of the explosive.

“What are you doing, Stark,” Rogers barked out.

“No worries. I’ve got it taken care of. Be back in a few. Then we can have some alone time, if you know what I mean,” Toni joked at Natasha, covering her growing pain with crude humor.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Tony,” Bruce said.

“Aww, honey bear, it’s so nice to know that you care,” Toni smirked.

Within seconds, Toni had fired the repulsors in her boots and blasted a hole in the wall, revealing the cloudy afternoon sky. The bomb dragged her down, but Toni managed enough momentum to escape the confines of the helicarrier.

If this bomb was going to explode, it wasn’t going to be around so many people. Toni didn’t even know when it was going to blow up, just that she needed to get it as far away as possible.

Already, Toni could feel the magical heat burning through her armor.

“Jarvis, nearest deserted place, now.”

“33.2 miles away. At this speed, an approximate three minute flight.”

“Any way I can make it there in two?” Toni really needed her hands. Burning them off would not be her idea of good.

“I am able to maximize thrusters by pulling power from the display screen. However, you will be flying blind.” Jarvis actually sounded worried – as much as a robot can.

“Point me in the right direction, and I’m good to go.”

“Adjust 2.3 degrees to the north. You will see it in approximately two minutes. Release the bomb then.”

“Thanks buddy,” Toni said before her screen was cleared of all navigation and only the sky was left.

Underneath her, the city merged to countryside as the cool air whipped by. The scene created an illusion of peace when in reality, a magical bomb that weighed a ton was about to explode and possibly kill everything in a twenty mile radius.

It was hard for Toni to get lost in the landscape due to the bomb threatening to halt her flight.

The burning of the box was a warning to Toni, a dire warning that she was most likely going to ignore.

A minute passed.

The armor on her hands was pretty much gone.

Another thirty seconds gone.

She could feel it burning through the Tony-bot.

Fifteen seconds ticked by.

She was getting close.

Five seconds.

She had to drop it.

Three seconds.

It was burning her hands.

Her skin was on fire. Ohgodohgodthatreallyfuckinghurt

The weight dropped from her burnt hands.

She dropped too.

 

“Power at 9%,” Jarvis’ voice said as Toni plummeted after the bomb.

“Use anything you got, Jarvis. We need to get out of here,” Toni croaked out, her voice hoarse from the pain in her hands.

“Pulling power from the blasters. You now have no fire power. Thrusters at 25%”

“Thanks Jarvis. That should be enough to get us back to the helicarrier.”

Toni flew back the direction she came, wobbling slightly but still firmly in the air. Behind her, she heard an almighty _bang_ , signaling the explosion of Loki’s bomb.

It was a good thing no one lived in a 30 mile radius of where she dropped it save for a couple of cows.

“Power at 15%. ETA thirty seconds,” Jarvis reported.

Toni let out a shaky breath. She could make it back. She could do this.

She would make it back, and then Bruce could treat her hands. Everything was going to be fine.

Everything was going to be fine.

It didn’t matter that she couldn’t feel her hands at all. It was probably just because they weren’t that bad. That’s all.

Those last thirty seconds flew by in a mirage of scenery and worry and agonizing numbness.

Finally, she was collapsing just inside the open doors of the helicarrier.

“Hey, Bruce, I’m back. Did you miss me, honey?” Toni mumbled over the comms, her injury obviously getting the best of her.

“Tony? Tony, are you okay? What happened? I’ll be there soon. Just hold on.” Bruce sounded frantic over the comms.

Why was Bruce worrying?

Everything was fine.

Soon enough, a shadow loomed above her.

“Tony, are you okay? What happened?” To Toni’s surprise, the voice wasn’t Bruce’s. It may just be Toni’s injury addled brain, but it kind of sounded like Rogers voice.

“Just peachy, Cap,” Toni ground out. “Hey, you called me Tony. You never do that. I must be in pretty bad shape, then, huh.”

Rogers took note of her supine position and the tight knuckled curl of her hands. Very carefully, he unfurled her fingers.

A quiet gasp drew Toni’s attention.

“Wazz wrong?” Toni mumbled.

“We need to get you to medical. Now.” Rogers sounded shaken which was a new thing for him.

“I’m fine. Really,” Tony claimed. She attempted to push herself up, but the nearly dead armor pinned her in place.

Barely giving her a chance, Rogers grabbed her arm and took most of her weight. As he did, he spoke into the comms, telling them what had just happened.

Then, they made their way to medical, the consequences of such a trip not even reaching Toni’s mind.

Everything was going to be fine.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just fixed this chapter because it came to my attention that there was a big plot mistake in the very last line.

“Toni, are you okay?” Bruce hovered like a mother hen around her as she leaned heavily on Rogers.

“I’m swell,” Toni answered lazily with a sardonic smile.

“I’m taking him to medical. His hands are pretty torn up and who knows what else might be hurt underneath the suit,” Rogers told Bruce as they walked through the deserted hallway.

Bruce’s eyes widened comically at his words. Medical?

That would mean taking off the iron man suit.

Which would reveal the Tony-bot.

Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but a quick glance at Toni’s hands revealed that the Tony-bot was burnt through.

They would all find out her secret.

He had to help her.

“You know, maybe I should take a look at Tony first. I saw him take his armor off a couple times so I know sort of how to do it,” Bruce mentioned, trying to be subtle. Unfortunately, lying wasn’t actually his strong suit and his nervousness threatened to let slip the truth.

“Medical will know best what to do,” Rogers said but was quick to add, “Not that I don’t trust you, but I didn’t think you were really that type of doctor.”

Throughout the conversation, Toni was quiet. It appeared that she had either nodded off or passed out. Either way, the captain had gently thrown her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Apparently, the bulkiness and weight of the suit of armor didn’t bother the super soldier at all.

“I’m not exactly, but the medical stuff comes with my field, so I’m well equipped to deal with this.”

Rogers gave Bruce a weird look. “Why are you so insistent that he doesn’t go to medical?”

Oh god, Bruce was terrible at this part. He had to come up with something fast.

“Um, well Tony really doesn’t like hospitals and stuff.” Not untrue from what Bruce has seen. “Also, he’s really private about the whole arc reactor in his chest and doesn’t trust SHIELD with it.”

Now that actually sounded convincing.

For a second, Rogers looked conflicted. This went against his every protective urge. It didn’t matter what he thought of Tony. Tony was on his team, and Steve watched out for his team members.

That meant he didn’t want them injured.

However, if what Bruce was saying is true, going to medical might actually hurt Tony more than help him.

With a sigh, Rogers nodded his acquiescence. “Where should we take him?”

Bruce noted the captain’s use of “we” but didn’t comment on it. There was no way Bruce would be able to carry Tony by himself, not while she was in the armor.

Bruce would just have to get rid of Steve after he put her down.

“My room should work. I have medical supplies in there.”

Rogers gave a brisk nod and let Bruce lead the way.

“How do you know all this stuff, anyways? Tony doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of depth to him,” Rogers remarked.

Bruce bristled at the Super soldiers comment. Rogers barely knew Toni. What right did he have to judge?

“Yes, well, not everyone is what they seem especially if you take the time to actually get to know them,” Bruce answered tersely with a sting in his words.

“Yeah.” Rogers looked mildly ashamed.

They finished the trip to Bruce’s quarters in a tense silence. Bruce’s mind raced. What was he going to do about Toni? He didn’t even know if he would be able to treat her hands. He hadn’t gotten a good look at them. And how was he going to get rid of Steve?

Eventually, Bruce stopped in front of one of the many innumerable, generic doors that lined the hallway. His hands were shaking as he typed in the key code to his room. As the door swung open, Steve inched his way through the narrow door. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as careful as he could have been. The side of Tony’s head banged against the door frame.

Bruce winced at the heavy clang, but Steve didn’t seem to notice. He was too busy laying Tony haphazardly on the cot. The bed appeared even smaller beneath the flashy red and gold of the Iron Man armor.

The door slammed closed behind Bruce as his eyes skittered around the nearly barren room before landing on the neatly piled medical supplies.

“Umm, Steve, why don’t you go check how the main floor is doing and get an update?” Bruce hedged as his hands fiddled with the edge of his belt.

Steve hesitated where he stood, his arms hanging stiffly at his sides now that they were free of his charge.

“Umm, are you sure you don’t need any help or anything? It’s not that I don’t think you can handle it, but . . .” Steve drifted off, his hands clutched in front of him.

Bruce looked up from where he was laying out his supplies on the nearby counter. “It’s under control. Go make sure everything else is okay.”

With one last glance at the unconscious Tony, Steve ran out of the room.

All of the air rushed out of Bruce’s lungs as soon as the Captain left. For a minute, the only thing he could see was the smudge on his glasses, the stain on his light purple button up, the smear of dirt on his creased khaki pants.

Bruce had never noticed that his shoes were dirty. He should probably clean those.

Wait. Toni. Toni was hurt. He had to help Toni.

Jumping into action, Bruce ran his hands over the suit. Deep metal grooves dip and curve beneath his nimble fingers.

With a click, the chest plate disengaged from the armor, revealing the smooth tony bot underneath. Bruce peeled off of the rest of the armor, being especially cautious around the arm and hand gauntlets.

After the suit came off, Bruce’s hands fluttered around the second layer of armor, the Tony-bot.

How exactly did this thing work?

Careful fingers felt around the neck and around the edge of the collar bone.

There had to be some kind of disengaging mechanism, but maybe Bruce was just too stupid to find it. Or Tony just really hid the button for it.

Either way, Bruce gave up.

A growl escaped the man as he felt himself growing angry. A green tinge crept into the skin of his hands.

All it took was a strong yank to tear the Tony-bot away.

Unfortunately, this method wasn’t too kind on Toni’s body, but Bruce couldn’t really give a shit at the moment.

What mattered was saving Toni’s hands. She would be completely devastated if she couldn’t do her whole mechanic thing anymore – even though, knowing Toni, she would create some high-tech robot to act as her hands for her.

Looking at Toni’s hands was not pleasant.

The skin on the palms bubbled red with blisters, and in some parts, underlying flesh and bone was visible.

Bruce nearly vomited, and he had seen a lot of disgusting shit, so that was saying something.

Swallowing his rage and vomit, Bruce delicately wrapped Toni’s hands in a clean bandage. Toni, still unconscious, let out a couple of pained moans as Bruce handled the severe burns adorning her hands and lower arms.

Toni’s groans weren’t the only sound in the room.

The bedroom door opened, and in the doorway stood three shadows.

Steve, Thor, and Natasha.


End file.
